


Two Ponds

by totalnovaktrash



Series: How Many Tears [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Eleventh Doctor Era, F/M, I'm not going to put the Major Character Death warning, Original Character Death(s), Rewrite, Series 5, and one is Rory, none of them actually die, two regenerate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-10-10 20:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 56,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10446630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totalnovaktrash/pseuds/totalnovaktrash
Summary: Lilithanadir is back, the Doctor's regenerated, and there a crack in Amelia Pond's wall. A crack that seems to follow them through time and space. What happens when Prisoner Zero and River Song's warning catches up with them? What happens when the Pandora opens?ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy this spin off AU of my AU.

Lilith helped the Doctor into the TARDIS and he leaned heavily on the door after he closed it. Pulling himself along by the handrail, he made his way to the console and took off his coat. He looked down at his right hand as it began to glow with energy. Walking around the console, leaning on it heavily, the Doctor finally set the ship in motion. He continued the circuit and stopped, just standing there.   
  
Lilith watched him with tears in her eyes. She loved her father, every face. She was sorry to see this one leave. "It's alright," she assured him. "It's going to be okay, Dad. I promise. Everything's a going to be alright."   
  
The Doctor looked at her sadly, a tear running down his face. "I don't want to go."   
  
The energy began to flow from his face. He threw his arms out to the side and his head back as the energy poured from him. It was too much for the TARDIS. She caught fire and beams collapsed. The light died and the new man gasped for air. There he was, floppy haired and green-eyed, the father Lilith had left behind.    
  
"Legs. I've still got legs, good." He kissed his knee. "Arms. Hands. Ooh, fingers, lots of fingers. Ears, yes. Eyes, two. Nose, I've had worse. Chin, blimey. Hair..." He ran hand through longer hair. "I'm a girl!" He felt his Adam’s apple. “No! No. I'm not a girl." He pulled his hair in front of eyes. "And still not ginger! And something else, something important, I'm, I'm... I'm..."   
  
While it was amusing to watch him take inventory of his body, and strange to see her father in the pinstriped suit, there were more pressing matters at hand. "Dad," Lilith yelled, "We're CRASHING!" They were both thrown against the console.    
  
The Eleventh Doctor whooped in excitement. "Geronimo!"


	2. Like a Fairytale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I try to keep everything Americanized due to the fact the Lilith is pretty much American, but I am now refusing to call fish fingers 'fish sticks'. Fish sticks and custard does not work. Therefore, I shall use 'fish fingers'.

The time rotor was sparking and the room was in flames. The doors to the TARDIS were wide open and the newly regenerated Eleventh Doctor was hanging onto the edge for dear life, sonic screwdriver in his mouth. The Doctor tried to pull himself into the TARDIS. Lilith jumped at the sound of a bell and saw that they were about to hit Big Ben. She pulled a lever and messed with the controls. The TARDIS sped up, narrowly missing the top of the tower. The Doctor managed to get himself inside, close the doors and fall against them with a sigh. The ship lurched and spun out of control. Lilith swore loudly in Gallifreyan.

Next thing she knew, Lilith was climbing up a rope, sopping wet from the pool, and hanging onto the edge of the TARDIS, which was laying on her side. Lilith took in their surroundings. They were in someone's backyard, it was night, and her time senses told her is was the mid 1990's.

And there was a red headed little girl staring at her.

Lilith cleared her throat. "Ah, hello."

The Doctor, who was equally as wet, poked his head out. "Can I have an apple? All I can think about, apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new. Never had cravings before."

"Are you okay?" The little girl asked.

The Doctor put both legs over the side, sitting on the edge of the TARDIS. "Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"You're soaking wet," she noted.

Lilith pulled herself out of the ship. "The pool broke our fall."

"He said you were in the library."

The Time Lady wrung out her hair. "So was the pool."

The girl studied the Doctor. "Are you a policeman?"

"Why? Did you call a policeman?" he questioned.

"Did you come about the crack in my wall?"

"What cra--?" The Doctor fell to the ground and shouted in pain.

Lilith dropped next to him. "Dad?"

The girl looked at the two of them, worried. "Are you all right, mister?"

The Doctor pushed himself to his knees. "No, I'm fine, it's okay. I'm fine, Lilith. This is all perfectly norm--" He opened his mouth and released a cloud of artron energy. Lilith was struck with a memory of him doing the same thing that Christmas Day with the Sycorax.

"Oh, Rassilon, please no. Now is not the time for a regeneration coma."

"Who are you?" the girl breathed.

"I don't know yet," the Doctor admitted. "I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"

She shook her head. "No, it just looks a bit weird."

"He means the crack in your wall," Lilith said. "Does it scare you?"

"Yes."

The Doctor jumped up. "Well, then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor and this is Lilith. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off."

"Bit early for the companion rules, Dad," Lilith snorted.

He ignored her and strode away with purpose, walking into a tree that knocked him to the ground. Lilith snickered. He rubbed the back of his head and glared at her. "Early days. Steering's a bit off."

The girl led them to the kitchen and offered the Doctor and apple. "If you're a doctor, why does your box say 'Police'?"

The Doctor took a bite of the apple, chewed, and then spits it out before coughing. "That's disgusting. What is that?"

"An apple," the girl said.

"Apples are rubbish. I hate apples," he decided.

"You said you loved them."

"No, no, I love yogurt. Yogurt's my favorite. Give me yogurt."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Any chance you're going to put a 'please' in there somewhere?"

The girl ran to the fridge and got him yogurt. The Doctor opened the container and poured it into his mouth. He spit that out as well. "I hate yogurt, it's just stuff with bits in it."

"You said it was your favorite," the girl reminded him.

He shrugged. "New mouth, new rules. It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything tastes wro--" A pained shout cut off the rest of his sentence and he doubled over. Lilith was immediately at his side.

"What is it? What's wrong with him?" the girl asked her.

The Doctor straightened up. "Wrong with me? It's not my fault. Why can't you give me decent food? You're Scottish, fry something."

Lilith stepped back and watched with amusement as her father continued to taste test different foods with his new taste buds. He declared bacon poisonous, claimed that beans were evil, and chucked a piece of buttered bread out the door. Eventually, Lilith found herself sharing ice cream with the little girl while the Doctor dipped fish fingers in a bowl of custard. Once out of fish fingers, the Doctor picked up the bowl and drank the custard from it. It left a mustache, which he wiped away with his hand.

The girl giggled. "Funny."

The Doctor grinned. "Am I? Good. Funny's good. What's your name?"

"Amelia Pond," she answered.

"Ah, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond, like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

"No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish."

"What about your mom and dad? Are they upstairs?" Lilith asked. "With the noise we've been making, I thought we'd have woken up them by now."

"I don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."

"I don't even have an aunt. Just Lilith," said the Doctor.

Amelia looked at the other girl, then back at the Doctor. "You're lucky."

He smiled. "I know. So, your aunt, where is she?"

"She's out," she replied, vaguely.

Lilith looked surprised. "And she left you all alone?"

"I'm not scared," Amelia said, petulantly

"‘Course you’re not. You're not scared of anything!" the Doctor agreed. "Box falls out of the sky, man and girl fall out of box, man eats fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?"

Amelia leaned forward. "What?"

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

"Can you take us to it, Amelia?"

Amelia took them up to her room where a crack stretched second the majority of one of the walls. The Doctor examined the crack. "You've had some cowboys in here. Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."

Amelia stood in the doorway with Lilith, apple in her hand. "I used to hate apples, so my mum put faces on them." She handed Lilith an apple with a smiley face carved into it.

"Your mom sounds like a good woman." She tossed apple into the air and caught it, then tucked it into one of her bigger on the inside pockets. "I'll keep it for later."

The Doctor continued to frown at the wall. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing, where's the draft coming from?" He ran the sonic screwdriver along the crack then checked the readings. "Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey. You know what the crack is?"

"What?" Amelia questioned.

"It's a crack." The Doctor said, simply. "I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, ‘cause the crack isn't in the wall."

Lilith furrowed her eyebrows. "Then where is it?”

"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together...right here in the wall of Amelia's bedroom." The Doctor pressed his ear against wall. "Sometimes, can you hear…?"

"A voice?" Amelia guessed. "Yes."

The Doctor took the water glass from the nightstand, poured out the water, then pressed it against the wall, and then his ear against the other end. She couldn't hear, but in the back of her head, Lilith knew what the voice had said.

 

 

> _Prisoner Zero has escaped._

 

"Prisoner Zero?" the Doctor repeated.

Amelia nodded. "Prisoner Zero has escaped. That's what I heard. What does it mean?"

"It means that, on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner. Do you know what that means?"

"What?"

"You need a better wall." The Doctor moved her desk out of the way. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or..." He looked at Amelia. "You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

"Yes," she said.

"Everything's going to be fine."

Lilith grasped Amelia's hand, putting herself between the crack and the girl. The Doctor used the sonic to open the crack. Amelia peered around Lilith as a bright light shined through the crack when it widened. A deep voice spoke. "Prisoner Zero has escaped."

The Doctor took a step closer to the crack. "Hello? Hello?"

A giant blue eye looked at them through the crack. "What's that?" Amelia gasped.

A small ball of electricity shot out from the crack, struck the Doctor, and he fell against the bed. The crack sealed once more. He forced himself up. "There. You see, told you it would close. Good as new."

"What was that thing?" Lilith questioned. "Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message." He showed them the psychic paper. "Psychic paper, takes a lovely little message. ‘Prisoner Zero has escaped.’ But why tell us? Unless..." He stood.

"Unless what?" Amelia asked.

The Doctor looked around. "Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here. But he couldn't have. We'd know." He ran out of the room. Lilith and Amelia followed. He looked around, confused. "It's difficult. Brand new me, nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing in the corner of my eye."

The unmistakable sound of the cloister bell rang out. Lilith swore in Gallifreyan and sprinted down the stairs, the Doctor right behind her yelling, "No, no, no, no, no, no!" They skidded to a stop outside the TARDIS. "I've got to get back in there! The engines are phasing, it's going to burn!"

"But... it's just a box!" Amelia protested. "How can a box have engines?"

"It's not a box. It's a time machine," Lilith explained.

Amelia blinked in disbelief. "What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?"

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilized," the Doctor said, looping the rope through the door handles. "Five-minute hop into the future should do it."

"Can I come?" the girl asked, eagerly.

"Not safe in here, not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes, I'll be right back."

Amelia pouted. "People always say that."

The Doctor looked her in the eyes. "Are we people? Do we even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor."

Lilith squeezed Amelia's hand. "Our ship is pretty beat up. It may be five minutes; it may be longer. But no matter how long it is, we will come back for you, okay?"

Amelia nodded and the Doctor and Lilith climbed onto the TARDIS. Holding onto the rope, the Doctor gave her a last look before jumping. "Geronimo!"

* * *

 

The TARDIS rematerialized in Amelia’s backyard. The door opened and Lilith and the Doctor stumbled out amid billowing smoke, cloth held over their noses and mouths. "Amelia! Amelia!" he shouted as they ran towards the house. "I worked out what it was. I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!" He used screwdriver on door lock and it opened after a few tries. He turned to Lilith. "Split up. Find her and get her out of the house."

Lilith nodded and ran off to check the main floor. "Amelia? Amelia are you here? We have to get out! Prisoner Zero is here!"

There was a thump overhead. Lilith ran up the stairs to find her father unconscious and being handcuffed to the radiator by a woman in a police officer's outfit. "Hey!"

The policewoman jumped and turned around. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"We're trying to save the life of a little girl!" Lilith knelt next to the Doctor and put her fingers to his temples. "Come on, wake up."

The policewoman spoke into her radio. "White male, mid twenties, and while female, early twenties, breaking and entering. Send me some backup, I've got the male restrained," she said. The Doctor groaned as he regained consciousness. "Oi, both of you! Stay where you are."

"Cricket bat," the Doctor groaned. "I'm getting cricket bat."

Lilith looked at the policewoman. "You hit him with a cricket bat?"

"You were breaking and entering," the policewoman pointed out.

The Doctor tried to stand but was stopped by the handcuffs. "Well, that's much better. Brand new me, whack on the head. Just what it needed."

The policewoman raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to shut up now? I've got backup on the way."

The Doctor frowned. "Hang on, no, wait. You're a policewoman."

She nodded. "And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?"

"But what are you doing here? Where's Amelia?" Lilith asked.

The policewoman stared at her. "Amelia Pond?"

"Amelia, the little Scottish girl, where is she? I told her we'd be back.  Dad promised five minutes but the engines were phasing. I think we've gone a bit too far. Did something happen to her?"

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time," the policewoman said, seriously.

"How long?" the Doctor queried.

"Six months."

The Doctor moaned. "No, no, no! I can't be six months late! I said five minutes. I promised."

"Could be worse," Lilith told him. "Could've been a twelve months instead of twelve hours."

"Are you ever going to let me forget that?" he complained. He looked back at the policewoman. "What happened to her? What happened to Amelia Pond?"

The woman used the radio again. "Sarge, it's me again. Hurry it up, this guy knows something about Amelia Pond."

"What happened to Amelia?" Lilith demanded, angrily. "Tell us!"

"Lilith," the Doctor chided, "calm down."

"Calm down? She's just a kid, Dad! And for all we know, she's been killed by Prisoner Zero."

"I need to speak to whoever lives in this house now," the Doctor said to the policewoman.

"I live here," she replied.

"But you're the police."

"Yes, and this is where I live. You got a problem with that?" The policewoman snapped.

"How many rooms?" the Doctor asked, calmly.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"On this floor," he clarified. "How many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now."

"Why?"

"Because it will change your life."

"Five." The policewoman pointed to each of the rooms. "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six," Lilith corrected.

"Look," the Doctor said. "Exactly where you don't want to look, where you never want to look, the corner of your eye. Look behind you."

The policewoman slowly turned around and saw the extra door. "That's... That is not possible. How's that possible?"

"There's a perception filter round the door," the Doctor explained. "Sensed it the last time I was here. Should've seen it."

"But that's a whole room," the policewoman protested. "That's a whole room I've never even noticed."

"The filter stops you. Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding. You need to uncuff me now!"

The policewoman slowly began to walk down the hall towards the room. "I don't have the key. I lost it."

"How can you have lost it?" the Doctor demanded. "Stay away from that door! Do not touch that door!" The policewoman didn't stop. She put her hand on the doorknob. “Listen to me! Do not open that!"

She turned the knob. Lilith shook her head and the Doctor groaned. "Why does no one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to? Again?" He frantically started searching his pockets as the policewoman went into the room. "My screwdriver, where is it? Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"

"There’s nothing here," the policewoman said.

"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the whole room," Lilith pointed out. "What makes you think you could see it? Now it really would be best if you got out of there."

The other woman ignored Lilith's last sentence. "Silver, blue at the end?"

"My screwdriver, yeah," the Doctor said.

"It's here."

"Must have rolled under the door."

"Yeah. Must have." Beat. "And then it must have jumped up onto the table."

Lilith and the Doctor glanced at each other, wide eyed with horror. "Get out of there!" he shouted. "Get out!" He stretched as far as he could with the handcuffs restraining him. The policewoman still didn’t emerge from the room. “What is it? What are you doing?”

“There's nothing here, but…”

“Don't try to see it. If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you,” the Doctor warned. “Don't look at it. Do not look.”

The policewoman screamed and ran out of the room. The Doctor snatched the screwdriver from her hand. “Give me that!” He buzzed it at the door, locking it, before trying it on the handcuffs. But it didn’t work. “What's the bad alien done to you?”

“Will that door hold it?” the policewoman asked.

“Oh, of course!” Lilith said, sarcastically. “It's an inter-dimensional multi-form alien from outer space. They're terrified of wood.” A bright light flashed around the edges of the door. Lilith stepped between the two others and the door. She drew her blaster. “Stay behind me.”

“What's that? What's it doing?”

The Doctor tried to wipe the goo off of the sonic. “I don't know, getting dressed? Run. Just go. Your backup's coming, I'll be fine.”

“There is no backup,” the policewoman told him.

He looked up, surprised. “I heard you on the radio, you called for backup.”

“I was pretending. It's a pretend radio.”

“You're a policewoman.”

“I'm a kissogram!” she exclaimed, exasperated. She took off her hat and her ginger hair fell down to her shoulders.

“Rassilon, we’re doomed,” Lilith muttered.

At that moment, the door to the room few open to show a man in blue overalls holding the leash to a large Rottweiler. He walked forward into the hall.

The woman was confused. “But it's just--”

The Doctor shook his head. “No, it isn't. Look at the faces.”

The man growled and barked while the dog remained impassive. The woman gaped at the multi-form. “What? I'm sorry, but what?”

“It’s all one creature. One creature disguised as two,” the Doctor explained. The man and dog turned their heads in unison. “Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?”

The multi-form snarled and advanced on the three and opened its mouth showing rows of razor sharp teeth. Lilith adjusted her aim. “Holly hell.”

“Stay, boy!” The Doctor ordered. “Them and me, we're safe. Want to know why? She sent for backup.”

“I didn't send for backup!” the woman hissed.

Lilith rolled her eyes and the Doctor glared at the woman. “I know. That was a clever lie to save our lives.” He looked back at the multi-form. “Okay, yeah, no back-up! And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back-up, then you'd have to kill us!”

“ **Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded,** ” a voice from outside boomed.

“What's that?” the woman asked.

Lilith groaned. “That would be backup.”

“Okay, one more time,” the Doctor said. “We do have back-up and that's definitely why we're safe.”

“ **Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.** ”

“Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration.”

The multi-form darted into one of the other rooms off the hall as the voice repeated its warning. The Doctor banged the screwdriver on the floor in an attempt to get it to work. “Work, work, work. C’mon.” Once the got the cuffs open, he jumped to his feet and shoved the woman towards the stairs. “Run!”

They ran outside to the backyard. The Doctor soniced the door to the house shut. Lilith turned to the woman. “A kissogram? Really? You used a kissogram outfit.”

“You broke into my house! It was this or a French maid!” the woman protested. “What's going on? Tell me! Tell me!”

Satisfied that the multi-form was locked inside, the Doctor went over to the TARDIS. “An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?”

“Yes.”

“Me too.” He tried unlocking the TARDIS doors, but they stayed shut. “No, no, don't do that, not now! It's still rebuilding, not letting us in!”

“ **Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated,** ” the voice from earlier warned.

The woman grabbed the Doctor by the arm. “Come on.”

The Doctor resisted. “No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait. The shed.” He ran to garden shed. “I destroyed that shed last time we were here, smashed it to pieces.”

“So there's a new one. Let's go.” She tried to pull him away.

“But the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least.” He sniffed shed before rubbing his finger along the wood and tasting it. “Twelve years.” He turned to Lilith. “We're not six months late, we’re twelve years late.”

Lilith whirled on the woman. “You said six months. Why did you say six months?”

“We've got to go,” she insisted.

“It’s important! Why did you say six months?” Lilith shouted.

“Why did he say five minutes?” the woman demanded.

The Doctor gaped at her. “What?

“Come on.”

“What?”

“Come on!” The woman pulled the Doctor along by the arm. Lilith, still shocked, followed.

“ **Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.** ”


	3. Leadworth

Amelia pulled the Doctor down a street with Lilith on their heels. The Doctor forced her to stop moving. “You're Amelia.”

She didn’t stop. “You're late.”

“Amelia Pond,” he said. “You're the little girl.”

“I'm Amelia and you're late.”

“What happened?”

“Twelve years,” Amelia said.

The Doctor stared at her. “You hit me with a cricket bat.”

“Twelve years,” she reiterated.

“A cricket bat,” he countered.

“Twelve years and four psychiatrists.”

Lilith frowned. “Four?”

Amelia shrugged. “I kept biting them.”

“Why?”

She looked back at Lilith. “They said you two weren't real.”

The voice came over the speakers of an ice cream van. “ _ Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. _ ”

“No, no, no, come on,” Amelia complained. “We're being staked out by an ice-cream van?”

The Doctor went over to the van, followed by the two gingers. “What's that? Why are you playing that?”

The vendor just looked confused. “It's supposed to be Claire De Lune.”

The Doctor picked up the speaker and listened. “ _ Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat, Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. _ ”

Lilith looked around and noted a jogger with a MP3 player receiving the message as well as a woman hearing it over her cell phone. “Om-com?” she guessed. “Like Jamie from the Blitz?”

“Doctor, what's happening?” Amelia asked.

The Doctor leapt over a low white fence into a front yard. Amelia and Lilith ran around to the front. The Doctor threw open the front door. “Hello! Sorry to burst in, we're doing a special on television faults in this area.” The Doctor glanced at Amelia’s outfit. “Also, crimes. Let's have a look.” He took the remote from the woman’s hand.

“I was just about to phone. It's on every channel.” The woman noticed Amelia. “Hello, Amy, dear. Are you a policewoman now?”

“Well, sometimes,” Amelia said.

“Weren’t you a nurse?” the woman asked.

“I can be a nurse.”

“Or, actually, a nun.”

Amelia shifted, uncomfortably. “I dabble.”

“Amy, who are your friends?”

Lilith looked at her. “Amy? Didn’t you go by Amelia?”

“I did,” Amy nodded. “Now I'm Amy.”

The Doctor frowned. “Amelia Pond, that was a great name.”

Amy shrugged. “Bit fairytale.”

The woman looked at the Doctor. “I know you, don't I? I've seen you somewhere before.”

“Not me. Brand-new face.” The Doctor made a face, and then turned back to Amy. “And what sort of job's a kissogram?”

“I go to parties and I kiss people.” She cleared her throat. “With outfits. It's a laugh.”

“You were a little girl five minutes ago.”

“You're worse than my aunt,” Amy snorted.

“I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt,” the Doctor said. Lilith snickered. “And that is not how I'm introducing myself.” The Doctor picked up a radio and used the sonic screwdriver on it. They same message about Prisoner Zero played in French and German before it turned off. “Okay, so it's everywhere, in every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world.” He opened window and looked up.

“What's up there?” Amy questioned. “What are you looking for?”

Lilith glanced up at the sky. It was completely clear.

“OK, planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core... they're going to need a forty percent fission blast. But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium-sized starship…”

“Twenty minutes,” Lilith finished, “We’ve got twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes to what?” prompted Amy.

A young man, who had recently joined them, looked at the two Gallifreyans. “Are you Lilith and the Doctor?”

“They are, aren’t they?” the woman said, excitedly. “They're the Doctor and Lilith! The Raggedy Doctor and his daughter. All those cartoons you did when you were little. The Raggedy Doctor, it's him.”

Lilith raised an eyebrow. “Cartoons?”

“Gran, it's them, isn't it? It's really them!”

“Jeff, shut up!” Amy snapped. She turned to Lilith. “Twenty minutes to what?”

The TV still showed the large eye repeating the message. “ _ The human residence will be incinerated. Repeat. The human residence will be incinerated. _ ”

“The human residence. They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet,” Lilith explained. “Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship and it's going to set the planet on fire. Twenty minutes to what? Twenty minutes to the end of the world. I’ve seen that, don’t want to be here to experience it.”

* * *

Lilith and the Doctor followed Amy down another steed. “What is this place?” the Doctor asked. “Where are we?”

“Leadworth,” Amy answered.

“Where's the rest of it?”

“This is it.”

“Is there an airport?” Lilith questioned.

Amy shook her head. “No.”

“Nuclear power station?”

“No.”

“Nearest city?”

“Gloucester, half an hour by car.”

“We don't have half an hour,” the Doctor said. “Do we have a car?”

Lilith cut Amy off. “I’m gonna guess the answer is no.”

“Well, that's good! Fantastic, that is. Twenty minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut! What is that?” The Doctor pointed to a pond a ways away.

“It's a duck pond,” following the Doctor.

“Why aren't there any ducks?” he asked.

“I don't know. There's never any ducks.”

“Then how do you know it's a duck pond?”

“It just is. Is it important, the duck pond?”

The Doctor shuddered, breathing out a cloud of artron energy. “I don't know. Why would I know?”

Lilith caught his arm before he could sink to the ground, clutching at his chest. “This isn’t good. You’re not ready, not done yet.”

The sky darkened and they all looked up. “What's happening? Why's it going dark?” Amy wondered. The sun appeared to be grey and flickering before it returned to relatively normal. “What's wrong with the sun?”

“Nothing. You're looking at it through a force-field,” the Doctor said. “They've sealed off your upper atmosphere, now they're getting ready to boil the planet.” He looked at the grass where the villagers were taking photos of the sun. “Oh, and here they come, the human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone!”

“This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big wind-up,” Amy accused.

The Doctor frowned. “Why would we wind you up?”

“Lilith told me you had a time machine.”

“And you believed me,” Lilith pointed out.

“Then I grew up.”

The Doctor wrinkled his nose. “Oh, you never want to do that. No, hang on, shut up, wait! I missed it.” He smacked his forehead. “I saw it and I missed it. What did I see? I saw... What did I see?”

Lilith watched the Doctor’s eyes dart from the fence, to the people taking pictures, the a woman in a phone box, to a man wearing a sweatshirt and a nurse’s name tag who was facing away from the sun taking a picture. He glanced up at the clock. “Dad?” she said.

“Twenty minutes. I can do it. Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me.”

“No.” Amy grabbed him by the tie.

“What the hell are you doing?” Lilith hissed.

Amy shoved him against a car as the driver stepped out. She slammed his tie into the door and locked the car with the remote. “Are you out of your mind?” the Doctor demanded.

“Who are you?”

“You know who we are.”

“No, really, who are you?”

“Look at the sky!” the Doctor exclaimed. “End of the world, twenty minutes.”

“Better talk quickly, then!” Amy reasoned.

Lilith reached into her pocket and tossed an apple at Amy. “Catch.” Holding it in her hand, Amy saw the smiley face carved into it. “I'm Lilith and he’s the Doctor; we’re time travellers. Everything we told you twelve years ago is true. We’re real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let him go now, everything you've ever known is over.”

Amy hesitated. “I don't believe you.”

Lilith grabbed her wrist. “Just believe us for twenty minutes. Look at the apple. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. For us, it  _ is _ the day you gave it to me. You handed this apple to me only a few hours ago. Amy, believe for twenty minutes.”

She unlocked the car. “What do we do?”

“Stop that nurse!” The Doctor ran onto the grass and took the nurse’s phone. “The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?”

The nurse stared at him, then looked at Amy. “Amy?”

“Hi!” Amy greeted. “Oh, this is Rory, he's a friend.”

“Boyfriend,” Rory corrected.

“Kind of boyfriend,” Amy amended

“Boyfriend?” Lilith repeated, fairly amused.

The Doctor pushed the real subject along. “Man and dog, why?”

Rory’s eyes widened. “Oh my God, it's them.”

“Just answer his question, please,” Amy begged.

“It's them, though,” the nurse protested. “Lilith and the Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor and his daughter.”

“Yeah, they came back.”

“But they were a story. They were a game.”

“Rory!” Lilith shouted. “Focus! You were taking a picture of a man and a dog. Why? Tell us now.”

Rory shook his head. “Sorry. Because he can't be there. Because he's…”

“In a hospital,” the Doctor finished with him, “in a coma.”

Rory blinked in surprise. “Yeah.”

The Doctor nodded. “Knew it. Multi-form, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed, a psychic link with a living but dormant mind.”

The multi-form snarled. The Doctor walked closer. “Prisoner Zero,” he said.

Rory looked at Amy. “What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

There was an electrical buzzing and they looked up to see a spaceship fly overhead. The eye started to swivel back and forth. The Doctor pulled the sonic out of his pocket. “See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver.” He held it above his head and turned it on.

Chaos ensued as streetlights shattered, car alarms blared, sirens wailed and everyone began shouting. A fire truck drove away on its own, chased by the firemen. “I think someone's going to notice, don't you?”

The multi-form barked. The Doctor lowered the screwdriver, aiming it at the phone box, which exploded. The screwdriver itself then sparked and fizzled, causing the Doctor to drop it on the ground.

The ship headed away. “Look, it's going,” Rory said.

“No, come back, he's here!” the Doctor yelled. “Come back! He's here! Prisoner Zero is here! Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is--”

The multi-form turned into a mist and escaped down the drain.

“Doctor!” Amy called. “The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain.”

“Of course it did,” Lilith sighed.

“What do we do now?”

“It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open,” the Doctor decided. “No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on; think. Think!”

“So that thing, that hid in my house for twelve years?” Amy marveled.

“Multi-forms can live for millennia. twelve years is a pit-stop,” the Doctor dismissed.

“So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute?”

“They're looking for him, but followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix. They're only late ‘cause we are.”

“What’s he on about?” asked Rory.

The Doctor held his hand out towards Rory. “Now, sport, give me your phone.”

The human didn’t seem to notice. “How can they be real? They were never real.”

“Phone, now, give me!”

He gave him the phone. “They were just a game. We were kids. You made me dress up as him.”

Lilith snickered. “Seriously? Did you dress up as me?” Amy tried to hide a blush.

The Doctor was looking through the pictures on the phone. “These are all coma patients?”

“Yeah,” Rory confirmed.

“No, they're all the multi-form. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero,” the Doctor said. “Laptop! Your friend, what was his name? Not him, the good-looking one.”

“Thanks,” Rory deadpanned.

“Jeff,” Amy replied.

Rory stared at her. “Oh, thanks.”

“He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop. Big bag, big laptop, I need Jeff's laptop. You three, get to the hospital, get everyone out, clear the whole floor. No arguments, Lilith! Phone me when you're done.” The Doctor ran off.

“Your car, come on.” Amy started dragging Rory towards a car.

Rory continued to protest. “But how can they be here? How can Lilith and the Doctor be here?” The three of them drove off in Rory’s mini.


	4. Prisoner Zero

Rory was talking with other nurses while Amy paced back and forth and Lilith was on her cell. He rejoined them. “Something's happened up there, we can't get through.”

Frustrated, she redialed the number that Amy had given her. “Alright, but  _ what _ ?”

He shrugged. “I don't know. No one knows. Phone him.”

“I am  _ phoning _ him.” She mocked the British slang. The Doctor picked up. “Dad? We're at the hospital, but we can't get through.”

“ _ Tell Amy to look in the mirror. _ ”

“What did he say?” Rory asked.

“To tell Amy to look in the mirror.”

Amy turned to see her reflection. “Ha, ha! Uniform!” She crowed, putting her hair up.

“Are you on your way?” Lilith asked her father. “You're going to need a car.”

“ _ Don't worry. I've commandeered a vehicle. _ ” On the other end of the line, fire engine sirens blared. “ _ Keep the line open. _ ”

Lilith followed Amy and Rory into an elevator. On the next level, the hallways were a mess. Gurneys and tables were overturned and scrubs and utensils littered the floor. A woman holding the hands of her two daughters saw them,

“Officer,” she said.

“What happened?” Amy questioned.

“There was a man, a man with a dog. I think Dr. Ramsden's dead. And the nurses.”

Lilith lifted the phone to her ear. “We’re in, but so is the multi-form.”

“ _ You need to get out of there, _ ” the Doctor told her.

As the woman continued to talk, Lilith couldn’t help but think something was off. “He was so angry. He kept shouting. And that dog, the size of that dog. I swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone. Where did he go, did you see? Has he gone? We hid in the ladies--”

It was then that she noticed that it was one of the little girls speaking in the woman’s voice. Lilith grabbed Amy and Rory’s wrists, pulling them back.

“Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I'm always doing that. So many mouths.” All three mouths of the multi-form opened, revealing the creature’s teeth.

“Oh my God!” Rory gasped.

“ _ Lilith? Lilith, what's happening? _ ” the Doctor asked over the phone. Lilith didn’t answer due to the fact that she and the two humans were running down the halls into one of the wards. They closed the doors and slid a broom through the handles. “ _ Lilith, talk to me! _ ”

They backed away from the doors and stood in the middle of the room. “We're in the coma ward. But it's here, it's getting in.”

“ _ Which window are you? _ ”

“Which window?”

“First floor on the left, fourth from the end,” Amy offered. Lilith repeated the answer.

The multi-form broke open the doors. “Oh, dear. Little Amelia Pond. I've watched you grow up,” it said. “Twelve years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her magic friends to return. But not this time, Amelia.”

Lilith’s cell beeped showing a text message from the Doctor. “Duck,” she read.

Hearing the wail of a siren, Lilith jumped out of the way and Amy pushed Rory down just as the ladder from a fire engine burst through the window. The Doctor climbed up the ladder and joined the trio “Right! Hello! Am I late? No; three minutes to go. So still time.”

“Time for what, Time Lord?” the multi-form sneered.

“Take the disguise off,” the Doctor ordered. “They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies.”

“The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire,” it snarled.

“Okay. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again, just leave.”

“I did not open the crack.”

The Doctor crossed his arms. “Somebody did.”

“The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from? You don't, do you?” The multi-form switched to a child’s singsong voice. “The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Doesn't know, doesn't know!” It switched back. “The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.”

  
  


> _ It’s important that you never repeat this story, Lilith. Any other one is fine, but not the story of the Pandorica. _

  
  


There was a clicking sound. The Doctor pointed to the clock on the wall. “And we're off! Look at that. Look at that!” The clock now had changed to 0:00. “Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team is working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And do you know what the word is? The word is zero.

“Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute?” The Doctor took Rory’s cell phone out from his pocket. “The source, by the way, is right here.” A bright light shined through the windows. “Oh! And I think they just found us!”

The multi-form looked from the window to the Doctor. “The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me.”

“Yeah, but this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favorite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Oh, and being uploaded about now. And the final score is, with no TARDIS and no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?” The Doctor made a face. “Oh, I'm never saying that again! Fine.”

“Then I shall take a new form,” the multi-form growled.

“Oh, stop it, you know you can't. Takes months to form that kind of psychic link.”

“And I've had years.” It started to glow. Amy fell to the floor.

Lilith dropped next to her. “Amy!”

The Doctor put his hands on Amy’s face. “You've got to hold on. Amy! Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please.”

Rory tapped Lilith on the shoulder. “Lilith? Doctor?”

They looked up to see that the multi-form was copying the two of them. The Doctor frowned. “Well, that's rubbish. It’s Lilith, but who's that bloke supposed to be?”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “It's you, Dad.”

“Me? Is that what I look like?”

Rory stared at him. “You don't know?”

“Busy day.” He stood. “Why us, though? You're linked with her. Why are you copying us?”

“I'm not.” Little Amelia stepped out from behind the multi-form’s version on Lilith. “Poor Amy Pond, still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic duo she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been.”

“No,” Lilith realized. “She's dreaming about us because she can hear us. “Amy, don't just hear me. Listen. Do you remember the room? The room in your house you couldn't see? Remember when you went inside. Dad tried to stop you, but you didn’t listen. You went in the room, Amy, dream about what you saw.”

The multi-form started to glow “No, no. No!” It changed into a large, sharp-toothed eel creature.

“Well done, Prisoner Zero,” the Doctor said. “A perfect impersonation of yourself.”

The multi-form got caught in the light and it writhed in pain. “Silence, Doctor,” it rasped. “Silence will fall.”

The creature disappeared and, with a whoosh of air, the ship left. The Doctor ran to the window, dialing a number on Rory’s cell phone.

“The sun, it's back to normal, right? That's... That's good, yeah?” Rory asked. “That means it's over.” Amy woke up. “Amy? Are you OK? Are you with us?”

“What happened?” She groaned.

“He did it. The Doctor did it.”

“No, I didn't,” the Doctor said.

Rory looked over at him. “What are you doing?”

“Tracking the signal back,” the Doctor answered. “Sorry, in advance.”

“About what?”

“The bill.” He spoke into the phone. “Oi, I didn't say you could go! Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established, level 5 planet, and you were going to burn it? What, did you think no one was watching? You lot, back here. Now!” He tosses phone back to Rory. “Okay, now I've done it.

The Doctor left the ward followed by Lilith and Amy and, eventually, Rory, who was staring at the Doctor in disbelief. “Did he just bring them back? Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?”

“Where are you going?” Amy asked the Doctor.

The Doctor strode down the corridor, determined. “The roof. No, hang on.” He ducked into a changing room and started to sift through the clothes, tossing away what didn’t appeal to him. “I'm saving the world, I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy, time to put on a show!”

Rory gaped at the currently undressing Doctor. “You just summoned aliens back to Earth. Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death, and now you're taking your clothes off... Amy, he's taking his clothes off.”

“Turn your back if it embarrasses you,” the Doctor snorted. Lilith groaned and covered her eyes.

“Are you stealing clothes now? Those clothes belong to people, you know.” Rory turned around, and then looked at Amy. “Are you not you going to turn your back?”

Amy crossed her arms and watched the Doctor, appreciatively. “Nope.”

When the made it to the roof, the Doctor was wearing a long-sleeved dress shirt, trousers with suspenders, and a number of ties were draped around his neck. He marched to where the Atraxi ship was waiting. “Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now.”

The thing that looked like an eye disconnected from the ship and scanned the Doctor. “You are not of this world.”

“No,” the Doctor agreed, “but I've put a lot of work into it.”

“Is this world important?”

“Important? What's that mean, important?” The Doctor tossed one of the ties behind him. “Six billion people live here. Is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?” He rejected another tie. “Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?”

The Atraxi projected a hologram of the Earth with scenes from history. “No.”

“Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?”

“No.”

“Okay. One more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here.” As the Doctor spoke, the projection showed Cybermen and Daleks, the Empress of the Racnoss, Ood, Sycorax, a Sontaran, a Sea Devil, Reapers, the Hath and the Vashta Nerada in the spacesuit. “Oh, there have been so many! And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?” The projection flipped through images on the Doctor’s first ten incarnations. He waved the images away. “Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically, run!”

The Atraxi ship left, Amy cheered, and Lilith laughed. The Doctor pulled something out of his pocket. He turned around and showed Lilith the glowing TARDIS key. She broken into a grin and the two of them raced through the hospital back to Amy’s house where the TARDIS was waiting. “Okay! What have you got for us this time?” He opened the door. The two Gallifreyans stood looking at the interior in shock.

“Rassilon, she’s gorgeous!” Lilith breathed.

“Oh, you sexy thing!” the Doctor declared. “Look at you!”

Lilith stepped into the TARDIS, taking in everything. It was like the ship had dressed up. Everything was more metal, less organic-looking, all copper and glass. The console is on a glass floor and there were stairs leading to other levels and doors. The whole room seemed to glow a dull orange. “Gorgeous,” she repeated.

“Quick jump somewhere?” the Doctor suggested, eyes gleaming.

Lilith beamed. “Race you to the new console.”

* * *

Lilith waited inside the TARDIS while the Doctor talked to Amy. She tried not to listen to their conversation, but she distinctly heard a familiar phrase. The Doctor defending his favorite accessory.

  
  


> _ Bowties are cool. _

  
  


The Doctor sauntered in, followed by a wide-eyed Amy. “Well? Anything you want to say? Any passing remarks? We've heard them all.”

He was obviously expecting the whole ‘it’s bigger on the inside!’ bit. But he got four words instead of five. “I'm in my nightie.”

“Oh, don't worry about that,” Lilith said, dismissively. “There are plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. So, all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will, where do you want to start?”

Amy raised an eyebrow. “You are so sure that I'm coming.”

“‘Course I am.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause you're the Scottish girl in the English village. Being the American who spends the majority of her time on Earth surrounded by the British, I know how that feels.”

“Oh, do you?”

“All these years, living here most of your life, and you've still got that accent. No doubt about it, you're coming.”

“Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?”

“It's a time machine,” the Doctor reminded her. “I can get you back five minutes ago. Why, what's tomorrow?”

“Nothing. Nothing,” she replied, vaguely. “Just, you know, stuff.”

Lilith looked at her suspiciously, but the Doctor breezed on. “All right, then. Back in time for stuff.” A new screwdriver extended from the console. “Oh! A new one! Lovely.”

“Why don’t I get one?” Lilith complained. “You made me leave mine behind.”

“Why me?” Amy asked.

The Doctor turned to her. “Why not?”

“No, seriously,” she said. “You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why me?”

He shrugged. “I don't know. Fun. Do I have to have a reason?”

“People always have a reason.”

“Been knocking around on our own for a while, my choice, but Lilith is getting sick of having no one else to talk to. Her complaining's giving me earache.”

“Hey!”

Amy looked at the Doctor, skeptically. “You're lonely. That's it? Just that?”

He nodded. “Just that. Promise.”

“Okay,” she relented.

The Doctor switched off the monitor. “So, are you okay, then? ‘Cause this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit, you know.”

“I'm fine. It's just,” Amy hesitated. “There's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought, well, I started to think that maybe you were just like a madman with a box.”

“Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand,” the Doctor said, seriously. “It's important, my daughter knows it, and one day your life may depend on it. I am definitely a madman with a box.” He and Lilith laughed. Amy joined in. “Goodbye, Leadworth. Hello, everything!”

The Doctor pulled the dematerialization lever and they all held onto the console. “Hey, Dad!” Lilith shouted.

“What?”

“Geronimo!”


	5. The TARDIS

“Why’s it a phone box?” Amy asked.

Lilith and the Doctor looked up from the controls. “Sorry, what?"

“On the outside it said police box, why have you labeled a time machine police box? Why not time machine? Is that too obvious? And what is a police box? Do policemen come in in boxes? How many do you get? Are you a policeman?” Amy paused for half a second. “No, look at your hair. Actually just  _ look _ at your hair! Do you ever look at your hair and think ‘whoa, it just won’t stop? And my chin! Look I’m wearing a bow tie, shoot me now’? Am I gabbling?”

Lilith blinked. “Tiny bit, yeah.”

“The question stands.”

“The first question?”

“Yes.”

“Well it’s not really a police box,” the Doctor said, “which by the way is a special kind of telephone box that policemen used to use.”

“Right, telephone box. There’s a light on the top, do you need to change the bulb?” Amy wondered.

“Amy, stop. Breathe,” Lilith reminded her.

Amy took a breath. “Why doesn’t the air get out? It is made of wood. You’ve got a wooden time machine. Do you feel stupid? Sorry, back on the bow tie.”

“It’s camouflage. It’s disguised as a police telephone box from 1963,” explained the Doctor. “Every time the TARDIS materializes in a new location within the first nanosecond of landing it analyzes its surroundings, calculates a 12-dimensional data map of everything within a thousand mile radius, and determines which outer shell would blend in best with the environment...and then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963.”

“Oh, why?”

“It’s probably a bit of a fault, actually,” he admitted. “I’ve been meaning to check.”

Amy frowned. “What, it’s a police box every time? How long’s it been doing that?”

“Oh, not long,” the Doctor claimed.

‘ _ Since your first body, _ ’ Lilith accused.

“Ok, ok, but what about the windows?” Amy continued. “There are windows on the outside but where do they go? Is it a cry for help?”

The Doctor looked taken aback. “What?”

“The bow tie!”

“Bow ties are cool,” he defended.

“And you’re an alien.”

“Yeah!” He confirmed. “Well, in your terms, yeah. In  _ my _ terms,” he tapped Amy’s forehead, “ _ you’re _ an alien. In quite a few people’s terms probably.”

“What kind of alien?” she questioned.

The Doctor shrugged. “Well, you know, a nice one. Definitely one of the nice ones.”

“So you’re like a, er, space,” Amy poked him, “squid? Or something…Are you like a tiny little slug in a human suit? Is that why you walk like that?”

Lilith laughed out loud. The Doctor glared at her. “Amy! This is me.” He grabbed her wrists and put her hands on his cheeks. “This is what I really look like.”

“Well that’s fine, then!” Amy slapped his cheeks.

“Ow!” he complained. “Good.”

“Okay. Okay, I think I’m done there.” Amy laughed.

“Amy Pond, we’ve barely started.” The Doctor pulled one lever and motioned for Lilith to pull another. “‘Cause do you know what I keep in here?” He and Amy ran to the doors.

“What?”

“Absolutely everything.” He opened the doors to show her space. “Anything fit your fancy?”

Amy stared. “We’re in space… But it can’t be.”

“But it is,” the Doctor countered.

“But it’s like, it’s like, it’s like special effects?”

“Like what?”

“It is isn’t it? It’s not real.”

“Get out,” the Doctor said.

“What?”

“No, seriously. Get out!” He shoved Amy out the doors and grabbed her ankle before she could float away. 

Lilith laughed. She had a feeling this was going to be fun.


	6. Starship UK

Lilith leaned against the wall of the new TARDIS interior with a smile. She watched Amy, still in her nightgown and robe, float outside the open door of the TARDIS as the Doctor held her ankle. Amy Pond was seven when she met the Doctor and Lilith, twenty when they came back, and twenty two when she ran away with them. And there she was, in empty space.

"Come on, Pond," the Doctor said. "Now do you believe me?"

"Okay," Amy relented, "your box is a spaceship. It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space! Whoo! What are we breathing?"

"I've extended the air shell. We're fine." He saw something below them and squatted. "Now, that's interesting." He walked over to the console, Lilith taking his place making sure Amy didn't fly away. She saw that they were flying over a spaceship. "29th Century. Solar flares roast the earth and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves." He started working on the controls. "Whole nations migrating to the stars. Isn't that amazing?"

Lilith pulled Amy back into the ship. "Come on. Something tells me he's found us a spaceship."

They joined the Doctor at the console where he had pulled up the spaceship on the monitor. "This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland - all of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal. That's not just a ship - that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping." The girls chuckled. "Searching the stars for a new home."

"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked, excitedly.

"Course we can but first, there's a thing."

"A thing?" Amy repeated.

"An important thing. In fact, thing one," the Doctor looked through magnifying glass, "we are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in my travels."

' _ Liar, _ ' Lilith mentally accused.

He ignored her. "I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets. Ooh! That's interesting."

The screen now showed a young girl sitting alone, crying. "So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? 'Cause if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it. They've got to keep filming and let it die." Amy watched the little girl. That's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that. Don't you find that hard? Being all, like, detached and cold?"

Lilith groaned as the Doctor appeared onscreen with the girl. She ran away. "He needs to stop doing that." The Doctor looked into the camera and waved for them to join him. With a smile, Amy and Lilith ran out of the TARDIS.

Amy looked around as they joined the Doctor. Above them was an arched glass ceiling through which Lilith could see the stars. The market they were in was a series of stalls and booths very similar to a contemporary Earth marketplace. "I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future," Amy said, voice filled with wonder. "I've been dead for centuries."

"Oh, lovely." The Doctor snorted. "You're a cheery one." He linked arms with Amy and Lilith and they continued walking. "Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Amy questioned.

"Use your eyes, notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"

"Is it... the bicycles?" she guessed. "Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles."

"Says the girl in the nightgown," Lilith commented.

Amy looked down, as if just realizing what she was wearing. "Oh my God! I'm in my nightie."

"Now, come on, look around you. Actually look," the Doctor said. "Life on a giant starship, back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me."

The Doctor ran over to a table and took a glass of water from one of the people sitting there. He set it gently on the floor and looked at it intently. Then, he put it back on the

table. "Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish." He rejoined the girls. "Where was I?"

"Why did you just do that with the water?" asked Amy.

The Doctor shrugged. "Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, do you see it yet?"

"Where?"

"There." He pointed to the little girl sitting alone in a bench, crying. Everyone was just walking past, ignoring her.

As they walked towards the girl, Lilith studied the Doctor's face. ' _ What was that water thing really about? _ '

' _ I was checking the engines. The ship is moving, but the engines aren't running. _ '

' _ How does that work? _ '

' _ Don't know, _ ' he admitted. ' _ That's what I intend to find out. _ '

They sat on a bench facing the girl. “One little girl crying. So?” asked Amy.

“Crying silently,” the Doctor corrected. “I mean, children cry ‘cause they want attention, ‘cause they're hurt or afraid. When they cry silently, it's ‘cause they just can't stop. Any parent knows that. Hundreds of parents walking past this spot and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state.”

The girl got up as the elevator bell dinged and the figure in the nearby booth turned to watch her. “Where'd she go?”

“Deck 207, Apple Sesame block, Dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner.” The Doctor handed Amy an ID wallet. “Oh, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes. Ask her about those things, the smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere.”

“But they're just things,” protested Amy.

“They're clean,” Lilith pointed out. “Everything else here is beat up and dirty. But no one's touched those booths. There’s not a footprint within two feet of them. Ask Mandy why people are scared of the things in the booths.”

“No. Hang on, what do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed!” Amy hissed.

“It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose? Ha, ha, gotcha!” The Doctor checked his watch. “Meet us back here in half an hour.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“What we always do. Stay out of trouble.” They stood. “Badly.”

The Doctor leapt over the bench and the two of them started to walk away.

Amy got up. “So is this how it works, Doctor?” she called after them. “You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said. He and Lilith left. “We need to find a way into a maintenance corridor.” After a few minutes of searching, they managed to find a ladder that led where they were going. The Doctor climbed down, followed by Lilith, and placed his hands on the wall before leaning in to listen. “Can't be.”

He used the sonic screwdriver to get a reading. Lilith tapped his shoulder to get his attention and pointed to a glass of water on the floor. He lied down and stares at it.

“The impossible truth in a glass of water,” someone whispered. It was a woman wearing a white porcelain mask. “Not many people see it. But you do, don't you, Doctor?”

The Doctor stood. “You know me?”

“Keep your voice down,” the woman hissed. “They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass.”

“Who says I see anything?”

“Don't waste time. At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?”

The Doctor studied the woman. “No engine vibration on deck. Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So I thought I'd take a look.” He opened the power box on the wall. “It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected. Look. Look, they're dummies, see? And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was--”

“No engine at all,” the woman finished.

“But it's working,” Lilith protested. “This ship is travelling through space. We saw it.”

“The impossible truth, Miss Smith. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly.”

“How?”

“I don't know. There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. You and your daughter are our only hope. Your friend is safe.” The woman handed the Doctor a device. “This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!” She hurried away.

“Who are you?” The Doctor asked. “How do we find you again?”

The woman turned to face him and whispered, “I am Liz Ten. And I will find you.”

There is a crashing sound and the Doctor and Lilith looked around for the source. When they turned back, the woman was gone.

* * *

They found Amy in a voting booth. The Doctor sat in the chair, using the sonic on the lamp that hung above. “Your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about 20 minutes.”

“But why would I choose to forget?” Amy wondered.

“‘Cause everyone does,” Mandy said. “Everyone chooses the "forget" button.”

“Did you?” Lilith asked.

Mandy shook her head. “I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice. And then, once every five years.”

“And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned. Democracy in action.” The Doctor turned back to the computer.

“How do you not know about this?” Mandy questioned. “Are you Scottish too?”

“Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me.”

“It played for me,” Amy said.

“The difference being the computer probably doesn't accept him as human,” Lilith guessed.

“Why not?” The Doctor and Lilith looked at Amy, who shrugged. “You look human.”

“No, you look Time Lord,” the Doctor argued. “We came first.”

“So there are other Time Lords, yeah? Besides Lilith, I mean.”

The Doctor was silent for a moment. “No. There were, but there aren't... Just us now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened, and you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. ‘Cause this is what I do. Every time, every day, every second. This. Hold tight. We're bringing down the government.”

The Doctor pounded the ‘Protest’ button. The door slammed shut, leaving Mandy outside. The Smiler in the booth turned to show its very angry face. The Doctor pulled Amy and Lilith into the corner of the room as the floor slid open. “Say, ‘Whee!’”

Amy screamed as they fell down the chute. Eventually they landed on a strange, spongy surface. Lilith wrinkled her nose at the texture of the ground. The Doctor stood and used the sonic. “High-speed air cannon,” he decided. “Lousy way to travel.”

“Where are we?” Amy asked.

“Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally. That puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say... Lancashire.” The Doctor looked around. “What's this, then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave.”

Amy stood up and kicked away a piece of garbage. “It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!”

“At least it’s only food garbage,” Lilith said, making a face.

The Doctor sniffed the air. “Organic refuse, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship. But feeding what, though?”

“The floor's all squidgy, like a waterbed,” Amy commented. “It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy.”

A distant moaning noise echoed through the cave. The Doctor tensed, realizing where they were. Lilith cringed, looking at his expression. ‘ _ Do I want to know? _ ’

‘ _ Not entirely sure, but I’m leaning towards no, _ ’ he replied. “Er, it's not a floor, it's a…” He trailed off, putting the screwdriver away.

“It's a what?” Amy prompted.

“The next word is kind of the scary word. Take a moment. Get yourself in a calm place.” The Doctor took Amy’s hands. “Go ‘ohm’.”

Amy did as she was told, confused.

“It's a tongue.”

Lilith gagged. “A  _ tongue _ ?”

The Doctor was more excited than grossed out. “A tongue. A great big tongue.”

Amy, on the other hand, was stunned. “This is a mouth? This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?”

"Yes, yes, yes, but on the plus side, roomy."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "So there's a bright side. A bright side of being in a freaking  _ mouth _ ."

The Doctor took out the sonic again. "How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous! Blimey! If this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach. Though not right now."

"Doctor, how do we get out?" Amy asked.

"Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is," he noted the sharp teeth of a closed mouth, "closed for business."

"We can try, though." Amy took a step forward.

"No! Stop, don't move!" Lilith warned.

The mouth heaved in agitation. "Too late," the Doctor said. "It's started."

"What has?"

"Swallow reflex."

They slipped and fell back into the garbage. The Doctor used the sonic on the walls of the mouth.

"What are you doing?" Amy questioned.

"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors," he told her.

"Chemo-what?"

"The eject button," Lilith clarified.

"How does a mouth have an eject button?

The three of them could hear the creature growl, and, on their knees, they looked to see a wave of bile coming towards them. "Right, then." The Doctor straightened his bow tie. "This isn't going to be big on dignity. Geronimo!" he shouted.

Lilith could hear Amy yelling through a great grunting and felt herself being carried along with the vomit before splashing onto a hard surface. She wiped the bile out of her face and found that they were out of the mouth and back in the ship. Amy groaned as she sat up.

The Doctor examined the door. "There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are covered in sick."

Amy looked around. "Where are we?"

"Overspill pipe, at a guess."

She stood. "Oh, God, it stinks."

"Yeah," Lilith said. "That's not the pipe."

"Oh." Amy sniffed her arm and recoiled. "Whoo! Can we get out?"

"One door, one door switch, one condition." He moved out of the way to show the button on the door. "We forget everything we saw. Look familiar? That's the carrot."

The lights come on to reveal two Smilers. Lilith stepped back; hand on her blaster. "And there's the stick."

"There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?" the Doctor demanded. The faces spun to their show mad face. "No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?" The faces spun again to show the angry face. "Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues?"

The booths opened and the two Smilers stood and walked towards Amy, Lilith, and the Doctor, who backed away. "Nice going, Dad," Lilith hissed and drew her blaster. But before she could shoot, the woman from earlier appeared behind them and shot the Smilers. She twirled her pistol before placing it back in its holster.

"Look who it is," the Doctor said. "You look a lot better without your mask."

Liz Ten looked at Amy. "You must be Amy. Liz, Liz Ten."

"Hi." Amy extended her hand to the woman.

Liz Ten accepted. "Eurgh!" She wiped her hand on her cloak. "Lovely hair, Amy, shame about the sick. You know Mandy, yeah?" She put her arm around the girl's shoulder. "She's very brave."

"How did you find us?" the Doctor asked.

"Stuck my gizmo on you." Liz Ten tossed a device at him. "Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"

"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."

Liz Ten shook her head. "No. Never forgot, never voted. Not technically a British subject."

"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?"

"You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, MO consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot." Liz Ten looked pointedly at the Doctor's floppy hair. He opened his mouth like he was about to argue, then ran his hand through his soaked hair instead. "I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."

Lilith frowned. "Your family?"

One of the Smilers began to move. "They're repairing," Liz Ten said. "Doesn't take them long. Let's move."


	7. The Very Last

“So how do you know who my dad is?” Lilith asked as they walked down the hall.

“The Doctor,” Liz Ten said. “Old drinking buddy of Henry Seven. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, wasn’t she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy!”

The Doctor nodded in understanding. “Liz Ten?”

“Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth X. And down!” She pun around and fired both pistols at two Smilers that had begun advancing on them. They both fell. “I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule.” She took them down another hallway to the base of an elevator shaft. “There's a high-speed Vator through there.”

The Doctor looked into a caged area where there are two tentacle-looking things. “Oh, yeah. There's these things,” Liz Ten added. “Any ideas?”

“Doctor, I saw one of these up top,” Amy told him. “There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through, like a root.”

“Exactly like a root,” the Doctor agreed. “It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship.”

Lilith studied the tentacles. “What, like an infestation?”

“Someone's helping it. Feeding it.”

“Feeding my subjects to it,” Liz Ten said, darkly. “Come on. We've got to keep moving.” She stormed off in anger and Mandy followed.

Amy looked at the Doctor with concern. “Doctor?”

“Oh, Amy.” He looked sympathetically at creatures as they banged against the bars. “We should never have come here.”

Liz Ten led them to her rooms. The Doctor walked carefully through the maze of glasses on the floor. “Why all the glasses?” He asked.

“To remind me every single day that my government is up to something,” she replied, “and it's my duty to find out what.”

He picked up the mask she had been wearing earlier. “A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?”

“Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this, my entire reign, and you've achieved more in one afternoon.”

“How old were you when you came to the throne?”

“Forty. Why?”

Amy froze in the middle of putting up her hair. “What, you're fifty now? No way!” Amy and Mandy sat on the chaise at the foot of the bed, but Lilith stayed standing.

“Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps,” Liz Ten explained.

The Doctor sat on the bed, still holding the mask. “And you always wear this in public?”

Liz Ten shrugged. “Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting.”

“Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, ‘cause it's perfectly sculpted to your face.”

“Yeah. So what?”

“Oh, Liz. So everything.”

‘ _ What’s wrong? _ ’ Lilith asked her father. ‘ _ There’s something wrong with the mask? _ ’

‘ _ It’s perfectly sculpted to fit her face, _ ’ he answered. ‘ _ But it’s far more than ten years old. _ ’

The door banged open and four hooded men entered. Liz Ten stood, outraged. “What are you doing? How dare you come in here?”

“Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. You will come with us now,” one of the men said.

“Why would I do that?” She crossed her arms. The hooded man’s head spun to show the face of an angry Smiler. “How can they be Smilers?”

“Half Smiler, half human.” Lilith made a face. “Oh, that’s just  _ wrong _ .”

“Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen. On whose authority is this done?” Liz Ten demanded.

“The highest authority, Ma'am,” the Smiler responded.

“I  _ am _ the highest authority,” she growled.

“Yes, ma'am. You must go now, Ma'am.”

“Where?”

“The Tower, Ma'am.”

Lilith groaned. “The Tower of London. Oh, great.”

* * *

The group was escorted to a large stone room containing high-tech machines. There was a grating through which Lilith could see more of the tentacles.

“Doctor, where are we?” Amy asked.

“The lowest point of Starship UK.” The Doctor spun around, arms out. “The dungeon.”

A grey haired man greeted them. “Ma'am.”

“Hawthorne!” Liz Ten hissed. “So this is where you hid yourself away. I think you've got some explaining to do.”

“There's children down here,” the Doctor said. “What's all that about?”

“Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast,” Hawthorne explained. “For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky.”

“We’re in the torture chamber of the Tower of London,” Lilith snorted. “Lucky us.”

“Except it's not a torture chamber, is it?” The Doctor examined the high-tech equipment. “Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle.” He joined Liz Ten and Lilith by an open well with a railing around it. Inside seemed to be something alive.

“Looks like the Ood Brain,” Lilith commented.

“What is it?” Liz Ten wondered.

“Well, like I say, depends on the angle,” the Doctor said. “It's either the exposed pain center of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly…”

“Or?”

“Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go-faster button.”

Liz Ten frowned. “I don't understand.”

“Don't you?” Lilith asked, bitterly. “We’re on a spaceship that could never fly, no vibration on deck. This creature-- this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting the ship, it's not invading-- it's what’s used instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving.”

An intermittent electrical beam shot down into the creature’s exposed brain. “Tell you what.” The Doctor moved to another well and lifted the grate. “Normally, it's above the range of human hearing. This is the sound none of you wanted to hear.” One of the extensions of the creature broke free. The Doctor used the sonic and the others hear the creature’s call, a low, mournful cry of pain.

“Stop it.” Liz Ten turned to Hawthorne. “Who did this?”

“We act on instructions from the highest authority,” he said.

“I am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now. I said now!” No one moved. “Is anyone listening to me?”

The Doctor, who was still holding Liz Ten’s mask, offered it to her. “Liz. Your mask.”

She took it. “What about my mask?”

“Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say.”

“Yeah, it's an antique, so?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign.”

“Nah, it's ten years,” Liz Ten insisted. “I've been on this throne ten years.”

“Ten years. And the same ten years over and over again.” The Doctor took her by the hand. “Always leading you here.” He showed her a voting area. The buttons read ‘forget’ and ‘abdicate’.

Liz Ten looked at the grey haired man. “What have you done?”

“Only what you have ordered. We work for you, Ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us.” Hawthorne turned on the screen.

A recording of Liz Ten started playing. “ _If you are watching this...If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower Of London._ _The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travelers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart._

_ “The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us, and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the star whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the ‘forget’ button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision. _ ”

Amy shook her head. “I voted for this?” She looked at the Doctor. “Why would I do that?”

The Doctor stared back with a dark look in his eyes. “Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know.”

“I don't even remember doing it,” she protested.

“You did it. That's what counts.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Oh, I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home.” The Doctor walked over to the equipment.

“Why? Because I made a mistake?” Amy demanded.” One mistake? I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!”

He didn’t look away from examining the instruments. “Yeah. I know. You're only human.”

“What are you doing?” Liz Ten asked.

“The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions; leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it.”

Lilith gaped at him. “That'll be like killing it.”

The Doctor spun on her. “Look, three options. One: I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two: I kill everyone on this ship. Three: I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more.”

Liz Ten shook her head. “There must be something we can do, some other way.”

“Nobody talk to me,” he snapped. “Nobody human has anything to say to me today!”

Lilith opened her mouth to say something, but closed it instead of speaking, not wanting to make the situation any worse or harder on the Doctor. She stood at Amy’s side and watched helplessly as the Doctor worked.

Three children came in and one ran to Mandy. They stopped in front of one of the tentacles and Mandy had her back to it. The tentacle reached towards the girl but, instead of hurting her, it gently tapped Mandy on the back and let her and her brother pet it. Amy and Lilith looked at each other.

  
  


> _ Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the star whales. _

  
  


The two gingers came to a realization at the same time.

Lilith ran to the Doctor and pulled him away. “Dad, stop.”

Amy went to Liz Ten. “Sorry, Your Majesty, going to need a hand.” She pulled the Queen over to the voting buttons.

“Amy, no! No!” the Doctor shouted. Amy forced Liz Ten’s hand down on the ‘abdicate’ button. The whale bellowed and the whole ship shook, causing havoc on every level. “Amy, what have you done?”

“Nothing at all,” Amy said, looking at Lilith. “Am I right?”

Hawthorne stared wide-eyed at one of the screens. “We've  _ increased _ speed.”

“Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. Gotta help.” She smiled at the Doctor.

“It's still here?” Liz Ten marveled. “I don't understand.”

“The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago,” Lilith said. “It  _ volunteered _ . You didn't have to trap it or torture it. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry.”

Amy nodded and continued the explanation. “What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead, no future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind,” she turned to look at the Doctor, “you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.”

* * *

The Doctor was standing alone, looking out onto the starship. Amy and Lilith joined him. “From Her Majesty.” Amy held out the mask. “She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK.”

“You two could have killed everyone on this ship,” he said.

“You could have killed a Star Whale,” Lilith countered.

He turned to face them. “And the two of you saved it. I know, I know.”

“Amazing, though, don't you think? The Star Whale, all that pain and misery and loneliness.” Amy looked sideways at the Doctor. “And it just made it kind.”

“But you couldn't have known how it would react.”

“You couldn't. But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the one of the very last. Sound a bit familiar?” She hugged him. “Hey.”

“What?”

“Gotcha.”

The Doctor smiled. “Ha! Gotcha.”

The three of them headed back to the TARDIS. “Shouldn't we say goodbye?” Amy asked. “Won't they wonder where we went?”

“For the rest of their lives. Oh, the songs they'll write! Never mind them. Big day tomorrow.”

She looked at him, startled. “Sorry, what?”

“It’s always a big day tomorrow. We've got a time machine, we skip the little ones.” Lilith said, unlocking the TARDIS.

Amy hesitated. “You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning? Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just... just because you could?”

“Once,” the Doctor admitted. “A long time ago.”

“What happened?”

He forced a smile and waved at her. “Hello!”

“Right. Doctor, there's something I haven't told you.” Amy was cut off by the sound of a ringing phone. “No. Hang on, is that a phone ringing?” They went into the TARDIS. “People phone you?”

“Well, it's a phone box,” the Doctor reminded her. “Would you mind?”

Amy answered the phone on the console. “Hello? Sorry, who? No, seriously. Who?” She muffled the phone against her shoulder. “Says he's Prime Minister. First the Queen, now the Prime Minister? Get about, don't you?”

“Which Prime Minister?” he asked, motioning for Lilith to pull the dematerialization lever.

“Er, which Prime Minister?” Amy looked back up on the Doctor. “The British one.”

“Which British one?”

“Which British one?” Her eyes widened and she passed the phone to the Doctor. “Winston Churchill for you.”

“Oh! Hello, dear. What's up?”

Lilith heard Winston Churchill’s voice on the other end of the line. “ _ Tricky situation, Doctor, potentially very dangerous. I think I'm going to need you. _ ”

**“** Don't worry about a thing, Prime Minister,” the Doctor said with a grin. “We're on our way.”   
  



	8. Back to the Blitz

The TARDIS materialized in a storage room. The Doctor, Lilith, and Amy stepped out to be greeted by a large group of soldiers pointing guns at them. The soldiers parted to make way for a man that Lilith assumed was the Prime Minister. The Doctor held out in arm in introduction. “Lilith and Amy, Winston Churchill. Winston, my daughter Lilith Smith and our companion Amy Pond.”

“Doctor? Is it you?”

“Oh, Winston, my old friend!” The Doctor went to shake hands, but Churchill just held out his hand, as if expecting the Doctor to hand him something. “Ah, every time!”

“What's he after?” Amy asked.

“TARDIS key.” Lilith shrugged. “What else?”

“Think of what I could achieve with your remarkable machine, Doctor! The lives that could be saved!” Churchill insisted.

The Doctor closed and locked the TARDIS doors. “Ah, doesn't work like that.”

“Must I take it by force?”

“I'd like to see you try.”

“At ease,” Churchill ordered and the soldiers lowered their rifles.

The Doctor stood up straighter. “You rang?”

Churchill led the three travelers down a hallway. “So you've changed your face, again.”

“Yeah, well, had a bit of work done,” the Doctor said.

“Got it, got it, got it!” Amy exclaimed. “Cabinet War Rooms, right?”

The Doctor nodded. “Yup. Top secret heart of the War Office, right under London.”

“You're late, by the way,” Churchill told him.

A woman came over and handed Churchill a clipboard and pen. “Requisitions, sir.”

“Excellent.”

“Late?” the Doctor repeated.

“I rang you a month ago.” Churchill signed the papers.

“Really? Sorry. Sorry, it's a Type 40 TARDIS. I'm just running her in.”

“More likely she was trying to avoid crossing timelines,” Lilith put in. “Remember last time we were here, Dad? Nanogenes and Uncle Jack?”

“Don’t remind me,” the Doctor muttered.

Churchill handed the clipboard back to the woman. “Something the matter, Breen? You look a little down in the dumps.”

She gripped the clipboard tightly. “No, sir. Fine, sir.”

“Action this day, Breen! Action this day!”

“Yes, sir.” Breen nodded, forced a smile, and hurried off.

An officer approached them. “Excuse me, sir, got another formation coming in, Prime Minister. Stukas, by the look of them.”

“We shall go up top then, Group Captain! We'll give 'em what for! Coming, Doctor?”

“Why?” the Doctor questioned.

“I have something to show you.”

The Doctor mouthed ‘Ooh’ to the girls and they giggled as they followed Churchill into an elevator. Churchill started the elevator and puffed on his cigar. The Doctor waved the smoke away.

“We stand at a crossroads, Doctor,” the Prime Minister said. “Quite alone, with our backs to the wall. Invasion is expected daily. So I will grasp with both hands anything that will give us an advantage over the Nazi menace.”

“Such as?”

The elevator stopped and Churchill opened the doors. “Follow me.” Amidst the sandbags on the roof, a man in a white coat was watching the sky with binoculars. “Doctor, this is Professor Edwin Bracewell, head of our Ironsides Project.”

Bracewell waved at them _. _ “How d'you do?” He returned to looking through his binoculars.

A formation of German planes was approaching. The Doctor, Lilith, and Amy walked towards the edge to look out over London and its barrage balloons as the bombs drop. “Oh, Doctor,” Amy breathed. “Doctor, it's…”

“History,” he finished.

“Ready, Bracewell?” Churchill shouted.

“Aye-aye, sir.” The scientist gave a thumbs up. “On my order! Fire!”

From within a sandbagged area on the room, laser beams were fired at the German planes and they were destroyed. Lilith’s stomachs dropped at the sound the laser beams had made. She looked at the Doctor, who was looking back at her, his eyes filled with shock and a bit of fear. “No,” she whispered.

“What was that?” Amy wondered.

“That wasn't human, that was never human technology. That sounded like…” The Doctor trailed off. “Show me! Show me what that was!” He climbed a ladder to stand by Bracewell, Lilith on his heels.

“Advance!” Bracewell ordered.

“Our new secret weapon!” Churchill declared. A Dalek rolled out. It was painted in Army khaki, a utility belt around it, a small Union Flag under the eyestalk and the lights on the top of the dome were covered. “What do you think? Quite something, eh?”

The Doctor and Lilith stared at it, horrified. “What are you doing here?”

“ **I am your soldier,** ” it replied.

Lilith gaped at the Dalek. “What?”

“ **I am your soldier,** ” it repeated.

“Stop this. Stop now!” the Doctor demanded. “You know who I am, you always know.”

“ **Your identity is unknown.** ”

“Perhaps I can clarify things here,” Bracewell said. “This is one of my Ironsides.”

The Gallifreyans stared at him. “Your what?”

The scientist turned to the Dalek. “You will help the Allied cause in any way that you can?”

“ **Yes,** ” the Dalek responded.

“Until the Germans have been utterly smashed?”

“ **Yes.** ”

“And what is your ultimate aim?”

“ **To win the war!** ”

Lilith swore in Gallifreyan. 

* * *

Back in Churchill’s office, the Doctor studied the diagrams and blueprints that clearly showed a Dalek. “They're Daleks! They're called Daleks!”

“They are Bracewell's Ironsides, Doctor!” Churchill argued. “Look! Blueprints, statistics, field-tests, photographs. He invented them!”

“Invented them?” the Doctor scoffed. “Oh, no, no, no!”

“Yes! He approached one of our brass hats a few months ago. Fella's a genius.”

“A Scottish genius, too,” Amy added. “Maybe you should listen to--”

Lilith cut her off. “Not now, Amy.”

“He didn't invent them!” the Doctor insisted. “They're alien.”

Churchill looked at him. “Alien?”

A Dalek glided by the open doorway and the Doctor tensed, looking over his shoulder. The Dalek surveyed the action in the room before continuing on. “And totally hostile!”

“Precisely. They will win me the war! Churchill turned over a blueprint to show a propaganda poster with a large Dalek.

“This is wrong,” Lilith said. “Flat out wrong.”

The Doctor followed Churchill into the halls. “Why won't you listen? Why call me in if you won't listen to me?”

“When I rang you a month ago, I must admit, I had my doubts. The Ironsides seemed too good to be true.”

The Doctor tried to grasp onto that. “Yes! Right! So destroy them! Exterminate them!”

“But imagine what I could do with a hundred! A thousand!”

“I am imagining,” he said, darkly.

“Prime Minister, my father is right,” Lilith tried. “Daleks are more than just hostile, they’re evil. They hate everything human. Not just the Germans,  _ everyone _ . Tell him, Amy.”

Amy frowned. “Tell him what?”

“About the Daleks!”

“What would I know about the Daleks?

“Everything. They invaded your in time, don’t you remember? In 2009. Earth moved, pepper pots flying around killing people, planets in the sky, you don't forget that! Amy,” Lilith looked at her, “tell me you remember the Daleks.”

Amy shook her head. “Nope, sorry.”

The Doctor and Lilith exchanged glanced. “That's not possible.” They headed into the map room. “So they're up to something, but what is it? What are they after?”

“Well, let's just ask, shall we? Amy walked over to a Dalek and tapped on its casing. It swiveled to focus its eyestalk on her.

“ **Can I be of assistance?** ” the Dalek asked.

“Oh. Yes. Yes! See, my friends reckon you're dangerous, that you're an alien. Is it true?”

“ **I am your soldier,** ” was the response.

“Yeah. Got that bit. Love a squaddie. What else, though?”

“ **Please excuse me,** ” the Dalek said. “ **I have duties to perform.** ”

The Doctor went over to Churchill and took the cigar from the Prime Minister’s mouth. “Winston, Winston, please.”

“We are waging total war, Doctor! Day after day, the Luftwaffe pound this great city like an iron fist.”

“Wait till the Daleks get started,” the Doctor grumbled.

“Men, women and children slaughtered,” Churchill continued. “Families torn apart. Wren's churches in flames.”

“Yeah? Try the Earth in flames!”

The Prime Minister moved around the table. “I weep for my country, I weep for my empire. It is breaking my heart.”

The Doctor followed. “But you're resisting, Winston! The whole world knows you're resisting! You're a beacon of hope.”

Signing more papers, Churchill looked up at him. “But for how long? Millions of innocent lives will be saved if I use these Ironsides now!”

A Dalek rolled up. “ **Can I be of assistance?** ”

“Shut it!” the Doctor shouted, and then returned his attention to Churchill. “Listen to me. Just listen! The Daleks have no conscience, no mercy, no pity. They are my oldest and deadliest enemy. You can _ not _ trust them!”

“If Hitler invaded hell, I would give a favorable reference to the Devil,” Churchill said, firmly. “These machines are our salvation!” A siren sounded. “Oh, the all-clear. We are safe. For now.” He left.

Lilith glared at the Dalek before it, too, turned away and left. “All clear my ass. We’re far from safe.”

The Doctor fidgeted with an officer’s hat. “What does hate look like, Amy?”

“Hate?” Amy repeated, confused.

“It looks like a Dalek. And I'm going to prove it.” He tossed the hat before putting it on a desk as he walked out.

Amy looked at the other ginger. “These Dalek things, they’ve really got him on edge.”

“You’ve got no idea, Amy.” Lilith sighed and went after the Doctor. She caught up to him just before he made it to Bracewell’s lab. “Dad--”

“Not now, Lilith.” He strode into the lab and started examining all of Bracewell’s equipment and schematics. “All right, Prof! The PM's been filling me in. Amazing things, these Ironsides of yours. Amazing. You must be very proud of them.”

“Just doing my bit,” Bracewell said, modestly.

Amy picked up a wrench. “Not bad for a Paisley boy.”

“Yes, I thought I detected a familiar cadence, my dear”.

“How did you do it?” the Doctor asked. “Come up with the idea?”

Bracewell shrugged. “How does the muse of invention come to anyone?”

The Doctor tossed the file he was reading on the desk behind him. “But you get a lot of these clever notions, do you?”

“Well, ideas just seem to teem from my head! Wonderful things! Let me show you.” Bracewell handed the Doctor a few files. “Some musings on the potential of hypersonic flight. Gravity bubbles that could sustain life outside of the terrestrial atmosphere! Came to me in the bath!”

Lilith studied the papers over the Doctor’s shoulder. “Are these your ideas or theirs?”

“No, no, no, no. These robots are entirely under my control, Miss,” he assured her. A Dalek brought him a cup of tea. “Thank you. They are the perfect servant, and the perfect warrior.”

“I don't know what you're up to, Professor, but whatever they've promised, you cannot trust them!” the Doctor insisted. “Call them what you like, the Daleks are death!”

Churchill came in, followed by another Dalek. “Yes, Doctor. Death to our enemies! Death to the forces of darkness, and death to the Third Reich!”

“Yes, Winston, and death to everyone else too!”

“ **Would you care for some tea?** ” the first Dalek asked the Doctor.

The Time Lord knocked the tray over, causing the cup to fall to the floor. “Stop this!” he shouted. “What are you doing here? What do you want?”

“ **We seek only to help you,** ” the Dalek claimed.

“To do what?”

“ **To win the war.** ”

The Doctor crossed his arms. “Really? Which war?”

“ **I do not understand,** ” it said.

“This war, against the Nazis? Or your war? The war against the rest of the Universe? The war against all life-forms that are not Dalek?”

“ **I do not understand,** ” the Dalek repeated. “ **I am your soldier.** ”

“Oh, yeah? Okay.” The Doctor picked up a large wrench. “Okay, soldier, defend yourself!” He banged the wrench against the Dalek.

“Doctor, what the devil?” Bracewell exclaimed.

The Dalek didn’t react. “ **You do not require tea?** ”

“Stop it!” the scientist pleaded. “Prime Minister, please!”

“Doctor, please, these machines are precious,” Churchill tried.

The Doctor didn’t listen. “Come on! Fight back! You want to, don't you? You know you do!” He yelled. “What are you waiting for? You hate me. You want to kill me. Well, go on! Kill me. Kill me!” He struck again.

“Dad, be careful!” Lilith tried to pull the Doctor away, but he twisted out of her grip.

“ **Please desist from striking me. I am your soldier,** ” the Dalek said.

“You are my enemy!” The Doctor punctuated his sentences with hits. “And I am yours! You are everything I despise! The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you. Time and time again, I've defeated you. I sent you back into the void! I saved the whole of reality from you! I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks!” He kicked the Dalek and it rolled backwards.

“ **Correct.** ” the first Dalek turned its eyestalk to the second. “ **Review testimony.** ”

“ _ I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks! _ ” a recording of the Doctor’s voice bellowed.

“Testimony? What are you talking about, testimony?” the actual Doctor demanded.

“ **Transmitting testimony now,** ” the second Dalek said.

“Transmit what, where?”

“ **Testimony accepted!** ”

“Get back! Everyone!” Lilith ordered.

“Marines! Marines! Get in here!” shouted Churchill.

Two Marines entered and one of the Daleks killed them. “Stop it! Stop it, please!” Bracewell begged. “What are you doing? You are my Ironsides!”

“ **We are the Daleks!** ” the first Dalek declared.

“But I created you!”

“ **No.** ” The alien shot off Bracewell’s hand, revealing a stump of wires and circuits. “ **We created you!** ”

“ **Victory! Victory! Victory!** ” The Daleks teleported away.

“What just happened, Doctor?” Amy asked.

The Doctor looked at where the Daleks had been only moment before. “I wanted to know what they wanted, what their plan was. I was their plan!” He grabbed Lilith’s hand and ran out of the room, dragging her back to where the TARDIS was parked. “‘Testimony accepted!’ That's what they said! My testimony.”

Amy, who had followed them, tried to defuse the situation. “Don't beat yourself up. You were right. What do we do? Is this what we do now? Chase after them?”

The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS. “This is what Lilith and I do. It's dangerous, so wait here.”

Churchill came to stand behind Amy, who glared at the Doctor. “What, so you mean I've got to stay safe down here in the middle of the London Blitz?”

“Safe as it gets around us.” The two of them stepped into the TARDIS. Lilith threw the dematerialization lever. “I can’t believe we’re actually doing this.”

The Doctor worked at the controls before checking the monitor. The Dalek ship appeared on screen. “Bingo!”

“I really can’t believe we’re actually doing this.”


	9. Skittle Daleks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I called this chapter ‘Skittle Daleks’. I refuse to call these colored Daleks anything else. So there you go. Hate on it if you wish, but that’s the way things are. They are skittles.

 

The TARDIS materialized and the three Daleks swivel their eyestalks to see the Doctor and Lilith emerge, the Doctor rubbing his hands. “How about that cuppa now, then?”

“ **It is the Doctor! Exterminate!** ” the first Dalek cried.

“Wait, wait, wait, I wouldn't if I were you!” The Doctor pulled out a small round object and held it out in front of him. “TARDIS self-destruct. And you know what that means. My ship goes, you all go with it.”

‘ _ A JAMMIE DODGER?! _ ’

‘ _ Improvisation, Lilith. _ ’

“ **You would not use such a device,** ” the second Dalek accused.

“Try me,” the Doctor said, dangerously. The first Dalek moved forward. “Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. No scans! No nothing! One move and I'll destroy us all; you got that? TARDIS bang-bang, Daleks boom!” It moved back. “Good boy. This ship's pretty beaten up. Running on empty, I'd say, like you. When we last met, you were at the end of your rope. Finished.”

“ **The Emperor was destroyed,** ” the second Dalek said. “ **One ship survived.** ”

‘ _ So they’re from the Game Station, not the Medusa Cascade. _ ’ “And you fell back through time, didn’t you?” Lilith guessed. “Crippled and dying?”

“ **We picked up a trace. One of the Progenitor devices.** ”

“Progenitor? What's that when it's at home?” the Doctor asked.

“ **It is our past. And our future.** ”

Lilith raised an eyebrow. “Oh, that's deep. That is deep for a Dalek. What does it mean, though?”

“ **It contains pure Dalek DNA,** ” the third Dalek explained, “ **thousands were created, all were lost, save one.** ”

“OK, but there's still one thing I don't get, though. If you've got the Progenitor, why build Bracewell?” the Doctor wondered.

“ **It was necessary,** ” claimed the second Dalek.

“But why?” The Doctor suddenly understood. “I get it. Oh, I get it! I get it. Oh ho, this is rich! The Progenitor wouldn't recognize you, would it?  It saw you as impure because all of the Daleks from the Game Station came from humans , the DNA is unrecognizable as Dalek.”

“ **A solution was devised.** ”

“Yes, yes, yes. Me. My testimony. So you set a trap, you knew that the Progenitor would recognize me. The Daleks' greatest enemy! It would accept my word. My recognition of you.” The Doctor looked at the third Dalek, which had turned to the instrument panel behind it. “No, no, no. What are you doing?”

“ **Withdraw now, Doctor, or the city dies in flames,** ” it threatened.

“Who are you kidding?” Lilith scoffed. “This ship is a wreck, you don't have the power to destroy London.”

“ **Watch as the humans destroy themselves.** ”

‘ _ The bombing, _ ’ the Doctor told Lilith telepathically. ‘ _ They’re making London an easier target for the Germans. _ ’ “Turn those lights off now. Turn London off or I swear I will use the TARDIS self-destruct!”

“ **Stalemate, Doctor,** ” the second Dalek said. “ **Leave us, and return to Earth.** ”

The Doctor looked at it, skeptically. “Oh, that's it? That's your great victory? You leave?”

“ **Extinction is not an option. We shall return to our own time and begin again.** ”

“No, no, no! I won't let you get away this time! I won't!” he shouted.

There is a mechanical whoosh, and then a soft thrumming noise. “ **We have succeeded,** ” the third Dalek announced. “ **DNA reconstruction is complete.** ” The Daleks glided back from the cubicle, which was enveloped in red energy. The doors slid open amidst sparks. “ **Observe, Doctor, Collector, a new Dalek paradigm!** ”

The Doctor and Lilith watched as new, larger Daleks emerged from the smoke and steam, each a different color: white, blue, yellow, orange and red. Lilith frowned. “They’re colored. They’re like skittles. Skittle Daleks.”

“ **The Progenitor has fulfilled our new destiny. Behold, the restoration of the Daleks! The resurrection of the master race!** ” the first Dalek cried. “ **All hail the new Daleks! All hail the new Daleks!** ”

Lilith swore in Gallifreyan.

“ **Yes, you are inferior!** ” the white Dalek declared.

“ **Yes,** ” the first Dalek agreed.

“ **Then prepare.** ”

“ **We are ready!** ” the three normal Daleks said in unison.

“ **Cleanse the unclean! Total obliteration! Disintegrate!** ”

The blue Dalek fired at the first and third Daleks and the red Dalek shot the second.

“Damn,” Lilith said, “what do you do to the ones who mess up?”

“ **You are the Doctor and the Collector! You must be exterminated!** ”

The Doctor held up the ‘TARDIS self-destruct’. “Don't mess with me, sweetheart!”

“ **We are the paradigm of a new Dalek race.** **Scientist, Strategist, Drone, Eternal, and the Supreme.** ”

“Which would be you, I’m guessing? Well, you know, nice paint job. I'd be feeling pretty swish if I looked like you. Pretty ‘Supre-eme’.” The Doctor mocked the Dalek speech pattern. “Question is, what do we do now? Either you turn off your clever machine or I'll blow you and your new paradigm into eternity.”

“ **Along with the Collector and yourself,** ” the white Dalek pointed out.

The Doctor shrugged. “Occupational hazard.”

“ **Scan reveals nothing!** ” the blue Dalek said. “ **TARDIS self-destruct device non-existent!** ”

“Alright,” the Doctor took a bite out of the cookie, “it's a Jammie Dodger, but I was promised tea!”

A siren sounded. The blue Dalek went to the scanner. “ **Alert! Unidentified projectile approaching! Correction. Multiple projectiles!** ”

“ **What have the humans done?** ” the white Dalek demanded.

“I don't know,” said the Doctor.

“ **Explain! Explain! Explain!** ”

“ _ Danny Boy to the Doctor! Danny Boy to the Doctor! _ ” a voice said over a radio from the TARDIS. “ _ Are you receiving me? Over. _ ”

“Oh, Winston! You beauty!” the Doctor crowed.

“ _ Danny Boy to the Doctor! Come in. Over. _ ”

“Loud and clear, Danny Boy! Big dish, side of the ship, blow it up! Over!”

“ **Exterminate the Time Lords!** ” the white Dalek ordered.

Lilith pulled the Doctor back into the TARDIS as the Daleks fired at them. She dematerialized the TARDIS as the Doctor listened to the chatter over the radio. “ _ Danny Boy to the Doctor. Only me left now. Anything you can do, sir? Over. _ ”

The Doctor picked up a small microphone and spoke into it. “The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. I can disrupt the Dalek shields, but not for long. Over.”

“ _ Good show, Doctor, go to it. Over. _ ”

Both the Doctor and Lilith worked furiously at the controls to take down the shields.

“ _ Danny Boy to the Doctor. Going in for another attack. _ ”

“The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. Destroy this ship! Over.”

“ _ What about you two, Doctor? _ ”

The Doctor glanced at Lilith. “We'll be okay.”

The White Dalek appeared on the monitor. “ **_Doctor! Call off your attack!_ ** ”

“Ah-ha, what? And let you scuttle off back to the future?” The Doctor scoffed. “No fear. This is the end for you. The final end!”

“ **_Call off the attack, or we will destroy the Earth,_ ** ” it threatened.

“I'm not stupid, mate! You've just played your last card!”

“ **_Bracewell is a bomb._ ** ”

“You're bluffing,” the Doctor accused. “Deception's second nature to you. There isn't a sincere bone in your body. There isn't a bone in your body!”

“ **_His power is derived from an Oblivion Continuum! Call off your attack, or we will detonate the android._ ** ”

“No! This is my best chance ever! The last of the Daleks! I can rid the Universe of you, once and for all!”

“ **_Then do it. But we will shatter the planet below! The Earth will die screaming!_ ** ”

“And if I let you go, you'll be stronger than ever. A new race of Daleks,” the Doctor said, lowly.

“ **Then choose, Doctor! Destroy the Daleks or save the Earth. Begin countdown of Oblivion Continuum! Choose, Doctor! Choose! Choose!** ” the white Dalek demanded.

The Doctor picked up the microphone. “The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. Withdraw.”

“ _ Say again, sir. Over. _ ”

“Withdraw!” the Doctor repeated. “Return to Earth. Over and out.”

“But sir--” Danny Boy protested.

“There's no time, you have to return to Earth now! Over!” With a grim look on his face, the Doctor set the coordinates for Earth. 

* * *

The Doctor ran into the map room and punched Bracewell, knocking him to the ground. He shook his hand in pain.

“Doctor!” Amy admonished.

Lilith joined them. “Not strictly necessary.”

“Ow! Sorry, Professor. You're a bomb! An inconceivably massive Dalek bomb,” the Doctor said.

Bracewell gaped at him. “What?”

“There's an Oblivion Continuum inside you, a captured wormhole that provides perpetual power. Detonate that, and the Earth will bleed through into another dimension!” He knelt beside the scientist, pulled out the sonic screwdriver, and opens Bracewell’s shirt. “Now keep down!” He used sonic to reveal the mechanics underneath Bracewell’s skin. There was a circular pad divided into sections glowing blue on his chest. One section turned yellow.

“Well?” Amy prompted.

“I dunno, I dunno, I dunno!” The Doctor shook the screwdriver. “Never seen one up close before!”

“So, what, they've wired him up to detonate?”

“Not wired him up! He is a bomb. Walking, talking, boom, exploding! The moment that flashes red.” He tapped the pad.

Amy searched for something to say. “There's a blue wire or something you have to cut, isn't there? There's always a blue wire. Or a red one.”

“You're not helping!” the Doctor snapped.

“It's incredible,” Churchill said. “He talked to us about his memories. The Great War.”

The Time Lord tossed the sonic from one hand to the other. “Someone else's stolen thoughts, implanted in a positronic brain. Tell me about it. Bracewell! Tell me about your life!”

“Doctor, I really don't think this is the time!” Bracewell said.

“Come on, tell us and prove you’re human,” Lilith insisted. “Tell us everything.”

One section of Bracewell’s chest was red and the second was yellow. “My family ran the Post Office. It's a little place just near the abbey. Just by the ash trees. There used to be eight trees but... but there was a storm.”

The Doctor tried to hurry him. “And your parents? Come on! Tell me!”

“Good people. Kind people. They... they died. Scarlet fever.”

“What was that like? How did it feel? How did it make you feel, Edwin? Tell me! Tell me now!”

“It hurt. It hurts, Doctor, so badly. Like a wound.” The second section turned red and the third, yellow. “It was worse than a wound. Like I'd been emptied out. There was nothing.”

“Good. Remember it now, Edwin! The ash trees by the Post Office and your mum and dad and losing them and men in the trenches you saw die. Remember it! Feel it, because you're human. You're not like them. You are not like the Daleks!”

The third section turned red. “It hurts! Doctor, it hurts so much!”

“Good! Good! Good! Brilliant! Embrace it.” The fourth section turned red. “That means you're alive! They cannot explode that bomb; you're a human being! You are flesh and blood! They cannot explode that bomb! Believe it! You are Professor Edwin Bracewell! And you, my friend, are a human being!” The fifth section changed. “It's not working, I can't stop it!”

Amy knelt beside Bracewell. “Hey, Paisley,” she said, softly. “Ever fancied someone you know you shouldn't?”

“W...what?” he stammered.

“Hurts, doesn't it?” The last section remained yellow. “But kind of a good hurt.”

“I really shouldn't talk about her.”

Lilith caught on. “Oh, there's a her.” The last section reverted to blue. “What was her name?”

“Dorabella,” Bracewell said.

“Dorabella? It's a lovely name, it's a beautiful name.”

“What was she like, Edwin?” Amy asked.

“Oh, such a smile. And her eyes, her eyes were so blue, almost violet. Like the last touch of sunset on the edge of the world... Dorabella…” All sections changed to blue, disarming the bomb.

“Welcome to the human race.” The Doctor grinned at Amy. “You're brilliant,” he looked at Bracewell, “you're brilliant,” he turned to Lilith, “and you.” He kissed her on the forehead and stood _. _ “Now, gotta stop them! Stop the Daleks!”

“Wait! Doctor! Wait.” Bracewell sat up. “It's too late. Gone. They've gone.”

“No, no, no! They can't!” The Doctor cried. “They can't have got away from me again!”

“No, I can feel it, my mind is clear. The Daleks have gone.”

The Doctor leaned against a pole, all energy suddenly drained.

“Doctor. It's okay,” Amy said. “You did it. You stopped the bomb. Doctor?”

“I had a choice. And they knew I'd choose the Earth.” The Doctor sighed. “The Daleks have won. They beat me. They've won.”

“But you saved the Earth,” Amy pointed out. “Not too shabby, is it?”

The Doctor looked around at Churchill and all the people in the room who all looked back at him in support. Lilith gripped his hand tightly.

“No.” he smiled tightly. “It's not too shabby.”

‘ _ It’s okay, Dad, _ ’ Lilith assured him. ‘ _ It’s going to be okay. _ ’ But she wasn’t so sure herself. 

* * *

Outside, it was morning. London had made it through another night. “So, what now, then?” Amy asked the Prime Minister.

“I still have a war to run, Miss Pond,” Churchill said.

A woman handed him a communiqué. “Prime Minister.”

“Oh, thank you.” He read the document. “They hit the Palace and St Paul's again. Fire crews only just saved it.”

The woman called Breen passed them, crying. Amy watched her. “Is she OK?”

“What?”

“She looks very upset,” she noted.

Churchill looked over his shoulder. “Oh, Miss Breen? Her young man didn't make it, I'm afraid. Just got word. Shot down over the Channel.”

“Where's the Doctor?” asked Lilith.

Right on cue, the Doctor came in. “Tying up loose ends. I've taken out all the alien tech Bracewell put in.”

“Won't you reconsider, Doctor? Those Spitfires would win me the war in 24 hours!” Churchill exclaimed.

“Exactly.” The Doctor nodded.

“But why not? Why can't we put an end to all this misery?”

“Oh, it doesn't work like that, Winston. It's gonna be tough. There are terrible days to come, the darkest days, but you can do it. You know you can.”

“Stay with us, and help us win through! The world needs you.”

“The world doesn't need me,” the Doctor dismissed.

“No?”

He made the Victory sign. “The world's got Winston Spencer Churchill. “

“It's been a pleasure, as always,” said Churchill.

“Too right,” the Doctor agreed,

The two men hugged. “Goodbye, Doctor, Miss Smith. Goodbye, Miss Pond.”

“It's been amazing. Meeting you.” Amy kissed Churchill on the cheek and he headed for the door. “Oi, Churchill!” She held out her hand. “TARDIS key. The one you just took from the Doctor.”

The Doctor made a choking sound and patted his pockets. Lilith laughed.

“Oh, she's good, Doctor. As sharp as a pin!” Churchill handed Amy the key. “Almost as sharp as me! KBO!”

Amy gave the key back to the Doctor and he unlocked the TARDIS. “So, you have enemies then?” she said.

The Doctor shrugged. “Everyone's got enemies.”

“Yeah, but mine's the woman outside Budgens with the mental Jack Russell. You've got, like, you know, arch-enemies.”

He thought about it. “Suppose so.”

“And here's me thinking we'd just be running through time, being daft and fixing stuff. But no, it's dangerous.”

“Very much so,” Lilith confirmed. “Is that a problem?”

“I'm still here, aren't I?” Amy studied the Doctor’s face. “You're worried about the Daleks.”

“I'm always worried about the Daleks,” he admitted.

“It'll take time, though, won't it? There's still not many of them. They'll need a while to build themselves up.”

“It's not that. There's something else; something we've forgotten. Or rather you have.”

Amy frowned. “Me?”

Lilith nodded. “You didn't recognize them, Amy, you'd never seen them before. But you should have remembered. You should have.”

The two Gallifreyans entered the TARDIS, leaving a confused Amy to follow. None of them noticed the crack in the wall, the same shape as the one that had been in Amy’s bedroom, glowing ever so slightly.


	10. River Song

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As an apology to those of you who disliked the way I changed Silence in the Library on Forest of the Dead back in Everything Ends, I left in Amy accusing the Doctor of getting married to River at some point. You’re welcome.

 

The three travelers made their way through the museum. The Doctor strode along, pointing at the displays and giving his opinions, while Amy and Lilith followed behind, both unimpressed.

“Wrong! Wrong! Bit right, mostly wrong. I love museums.” The Doctor grinned.

“Yeah, great,” Amy said. “Can we go to a planet now? Big spaceship, Churchill's bunker. You promised me a planet next.”

“Amy, this isn't any old asteroid. It's the Delerium Archive, final resting place of the headless monks, the biggest museum ever!”

“You've got a time machine,” she reminded him, “what do you need museums for?”

The Doctor ignored her. “Wrong! Very wrong! Ooh, one of mine. Also one of mine.” He peered into a display case.

“It’s how he keeps score,” Lilith said.

Something in the next display case caught the Doctor’s eye. It was an antique box. Intrigued, the Doctor looks at the top, which bore strange symbols. Amy noticed what the Doctor was so interested in. “Oh great, an old box.”

“It's from one of the old star liners. A Home Box.”

“What's a Home Box?”

“Like a black box on a plane, except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the Home Box flies home, with all the flight data,” the Doctor explained.

“So?”

He motioned to the symbols. “The writing, the graffiti? Old High Gallifreyan, the lost language of the Time Lords. There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple Gods.”

That interested Amy. “What does it say?”

The Doctor looked at Lilith, his eyes not betraying anything. “‘Hello, sweetie.’”

Lilith’s jaw dropped. “It’s her.

Alarm bells rang as the Doctor ran through the museum, the home box tucked under his arm. Amy and Lilith were racing beside him. They rushed into the TARDIS as two guards chased after them. The Doctor hooked the Home Box up to the console.

“Why are we doing this?” Amy asked.

“Someone on a spaceship twelve thousand years ago is trying to get his attention,” Lilith answered. She moved to help the Doctor. “Can you get the security playback working?”

“Should be able to.” A grainy black and white footage of River Song winking at the camera appeared on the monitor. It then switched to River with her back to the camera facing a door and a group of armed men facing her.

“ _ The party's over, Doctor Song, _ ” one of the men, the leader, said, “ _ yet still you're on board. _ ”

River turned to face him. “ _ Sorry, Alistair. I needed to see what was in your vault. Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something, this ship won't reach its destination. _ ”

“ _ Wait till she runs. Don't make it look like an execution, _ ” the leader ordered the other men.

River looked at her watch. “ _ Triple-seven, five, slash, three, four, nine by ten. Zero, twelve, slash, acorn. Oh, and I could do with an air corridor. _ ”

The Doctor started furiously typing on a keyboard. Amy watched with interest “What was that, what did she say?”

“Coordinates!”

“ _ Like I said on the dance floor, _ ” River said on the monitor, “ _ you might want to find something to hang on to! _ ”

The TARDIS began to materialize just as the door behind River opened and she fell out of the ship she was on. The Doctor let out a whoop before running to open the TARDIS doors. He reached out and caught River, and they both landed on the floor.

River jumped up. “Follow that ship!”

Lilith, the Doctor, and River all worked on the console to keep the TARDIS close to the ship. 

“They've gone into warp drive,” Lilith growled, “we're losing them! Stay close!”

“I'm trying!” the Doctor shouted.

“Use the stabilizers,” River suggested.

“There aren't any stabilizers!”

“The blue switches!”

“The blue ones don't do anything, they're just blue.”

“Yes, they're blue. They're the blue stabilizers!” River flipped the blue switches and the ship became quiet. “See?”

The Doctor blinked. “Yeah, well, it's just boring now, isn't it? They're boring-ers. They're blue boring-ers.”

“Doctor, how come she can fly the TARDIS?” Amy questioned.

“You call that flying the TARDIS? Ha!” He flopped on the jump seat to sulk while River and Lilith continued to work.

“Okay,” River said. “I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination, and parked us right along side.”

The Doctor frowned. “Parked us? We haven't landed.”

“Of course we've landed,” River argued. “I just landed her.”

“But it didn't make the noise,” he protested.

“What noise?”

“You know, the…” The Doctor tried to imitate the TARDIS’ wheezing sound.

“It's not supposed to make that noise. You leave the brakes on.”

“Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise. I love that noise. Come along, Pond, let's have a look.” He started towards the doors.

“No, wait!” River shouted. “Environment checks.”

“Oh, yes, sorry! Quite right. Environment checks.” The Doctor stuck his head out the door. “Nice out.”

Lilith snickered. River glared at the two of them and checked the monitor. “We're somewhere in the Garn Belt. There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest--”

“We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System,” the Doctor interrupted. “Oxygen-rich atmosphere, toxins in the soft band, 11-hour day, and,” he put his head out the door again, “chances of rain later.”

River rolled her eyes. “He thinks he's so clever when he does that,” she said to Amy and Lilith. The Doctor rejoined them at the console.

“How come you can fly the TARDIS?” Amy asked River.

“Oh, I had lessons from the very best.”

The Doctor looked smug. “Well, yeah.”

“It's a shame you were busy that day.” River picked up her shoes and headed for the doors. “Right then, why did they land here?”

“They didn't land,” Lilith said.

River looked back at her. “Sorry?”

“Didn’t you check the Home Box? It didn’t land, it crashed.”

River stepped outside and the Doctor closed the door behind her before heading back to the console.

“Explain!” Amy demanded. “Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?”

“It's a long story and I don't know most of it,” the Doctor replied, messing with the controls. “Off we go!”

Lilith stilled his hands. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Leaving. She's got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go.”

“Dad! We can’t just leave her behind!”

“Yes we can.”

“Why?” Amy asked.

“‘Cause she's the future, my future.”

Lilith snorted. “You can’t just run away from that.”

“I can run away from anything I like,” the Doctor countered. “Time is not the boss of me.”

“Hang on,” Amy said, “is that a planet out there?”

“Yes, of course it's a planet.”

“You promised me a planet,” she reminded him. “Five minutes?”

The Doctor relented. “Okay, five minutes!”

“Yes!” Amy and Lilith ran for the doors.

“But that's all, ‘cause I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging me into anything!” He followed the two girls outside.

The ship they were following had crashed on top of a very large and very old stone structure. It was burning in areas and bits of debris had fallen to the ground around the TARDIS. The Doctor, Lilith, Amy, and River stood there, looking up at it. “What caused it to crash?” River wondered. “Not me.”

“Nah, the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it,” the Doctor assured her. “According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase-shift. No survivors.”

River nodded. “A phase-shift would have to be sabotage. I did warn them.”

He looked at her, curiously. “About what?”

She didn’t answer. “Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries.” She started to key something into a handheld device.

Amy crossed her arms. “Aren't you going to introduce us?”

“Amy Pond, Professor River Song,” the Doctor introduced.

River turned to them with a grin. “Ah, I'm going to be a Professor someday, am I? How exciting!” She chuckled and the Doctor winced at his slip. “Spoilers!”

Still not satisfied, Amy continued to press. “Yeah, but who is she and how did she do that? She just left you a note in a museum!”

The Doctor huffed and walked off.

“Two things always guaranteed to show up in a museum,” River said. “The Home Box of category four star liner and, sooner or later, him. It's how he keeps score.”

“I know.” Amy laughed.

River looked down at Lilith. “Now, since he neglected to introduce you, Lil?”

Lilith grinned and hugged the blonde. “Hi, Aunt River.”

Amy glanced between them. “Aunt River?”

“Why else would the two of them agree to pick me up?”

The Doctor came up behind them with sarcastic laugh. “I'm nobody's taxi service! I'm not gonna be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a space ship.”

“And you are so wrong.” River switched topics. “There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die.” The Doctor looked interested and she smirked. “Now he's listening!”

She spoke into the device she was holding. “You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and hone in on my signal.” She held up the device. “Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon.”

The Doctor took out the sonic screwdriver and used it on River’s communication device. She dropped a small curtsey. Amy’s eyes widened. “Ooh, Doctor! You soniced her!

River put down the device. “We have a minute. Shall we?” She opened her TARDIS diary. “Where were we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?”

“What's the book?” Amy asked.

“Stay away from it,” the Doctor warned.

“What is it though?”

“Her diary.”

“Our diary,” River corrected.

“Her past, Dad’s future,” Lilith explained. “Time travel. They keep meeting in the wrong order.”

Four columns of swirling dust appeared, and then turned into four soldiers in desert camouflage uniforms. One of the soldiers approached River. “You promised me an army, Doctor Song.”

“No,” River said. “I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor and the Collector.”

The Doctor gave the soldier a lighthearted salute, causing Lilith to raise an eyebrow.

The Soldier shook the Doctor’s hand, then Lilith’s. “Father Octavian, sir. Bishop, second class. twenty clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation. Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?”

River looked at the two Gallifreyans. “What do you two know of the Weeping Angels?”

The Doctor tensed and glanced at Lilith with fear in his eyes. Lilith winced and swore in Gallifreyan.

* * *

By nighttime, a transport ship had arrived and the soldiers had already set up camp. Octavian strode across the ground followed by the Doctor, Lilith, and Amy. “The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralize it. We can't get through up top; we'd be too close to the drives. According to this,” he showed them a device, “behind the cliff face, there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up.”

“Oh, good,” Lilith muttered.

“Good, ma’am?”

“Catacombs, probably dark ones. Dark and ominous catacombs. Absolutely fantastic.”

“Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead.”

“You can stop any time you like,” the Doctor said.

“Father Octavian?” a soldier called.

“Excuse me, sir, ma’am.”

The Doctor waved off Octavian as he left. Then, he used the sonic on some of the equipment set up on the table.

“You're letting people call you ‘sir’. You never do that.” Amy sat herself on a table.

“And you’re letting them salute you,” Lilith added.

“So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?”

“You're still here. Which part of ‘Wait in the TARDIS till I tell you it's safe’ was so confusing?”

“Ooh, are you all Mr. Grumpy Face today?” Amy teased.

The Doctor looked at her, very seriously. “A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced, and one is trapped inside that wreckage and I'm supposed to climb in with a screwdriver and a torch and, assuming I survive the radiation and the whole ship doesn't blow up in my face, do something clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day, that's what I'm up to. Any questions?”

“Is River Song your sister? Or sister-in-law?” she asked, clearly oblivious to, or not caring about, the danger. “‘Cause Lilith called her ‘Aunt River”. She's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone do that. But she's kinda like, you know, ‘Heel, boy!’ and seems more wife-y than sister-y. She's Mrs. Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she going to be your wife one day?”

Lilith broke into hysterical laughter, causing the other two to stare at her. “S-sorry,” she managed. “I’m just trying to imagine Mom’s reaction to Dad being married to Aunt River.  _ Priceless _ .”

The Doctor glared at her. “Yes. You're right. I am definitely Mr. Grumpy Face today.”

River poker her head out of the door of the transport. “Doctor? Lilith? Father Octavian!”

The four of them went over to the transport. On a screen, there was black and white footage of a Weeping Angel, its body at an angle to the camera, hands over its eyes. River was controlling the video with a remote. “What do you think? It's from the security cameras in the  _ Byzantium _ vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop.”

“Yep, that’s an Angel,” Lilith confirmed. “Hands covering its face, and everything.”

“You've encountered the Angels before?” Octavian queried.

“Once,” the Doctor said. “On Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving.”

“It's just a statue,” Amy pointed out.

“It's a statue when you see it,” River corrected.

The Doctor studied the screen. “Where did it come from?”

“Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century,” River replied. “It's been in private hands ever since, dormant all that time.”

“There's a difference between dormant and patient,” he murmured.

Amy frowned. “What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?”

“The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen,” said River. “So legend has it.”

Lilith shook her head. “It's not a legend, it's a quantum lock. In the line of sight of any living creature, the Weeping Angels literally cease to exist. They're nothing but stone. It’s the ultimate defense mechanism.”

“What, being a stone?”

The Doctor looked at the image of the Angel warily. “Being a stone...until you turn your back.”

He led the others out of the transport. “The hyperdrive would've split on impact. The whole ship will be flooded with radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms, deadly to almost any living thing.”

“Deadly to an Angel?” Octavian guessed, hopefully.

“Dinner to an Angel,” Lilith corrected. “And the longer we let it sit, the stronger the damn thing will grow.”

“Who built that temple? Are they still around?” the Doctor asked River.

“The Aplans were the indigenous life-form. They died out 400 years ago.”

“Two hundred years later, the planet was terraformed. Currently there are six billion human colonists,” Octavian informed the Doctor. “Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population--”

“Oh, there is,” the Doctor said, nodding vigorously. “Bad as it gets. Bishop, lock and load!”

The Bishop straightened up. “Dr. Song, with me.”

“Two minutes. Sweetie, Lil, I need you.” River walked off. The Doctor mouthed ‘sweetie’ before realizing that River meant him and went to her. Lilith rolled her eyes and followed. River showed the Doctor a book. “I found this, definitive work on the Angels. Well, the only one. Written by a madman, it’s barely readable, but I’ve marked a few passages.”

The Doctor too the book and slipped through it in a few seconds. “Not bad, bit slow in the middle, didn’t you hate his girlfriend? No, hand on. Wait, wait!” He sniffed the book.

“Dad, what the hell are you doing?”

Amy popped her head out of the transport. “Dr. Song? Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?”

River shook her head. “No, just the four seconds.”

Puzzled, Amy went back inside. Lilith took River’s hand. If you had blinked, you would’ve missed it, but Lilith caught River flinch when Amy called her ‘Dr. Song’. River gave Lilith a small smile and squeezed her hand.

Lilith flashed back to overhearing an argument between her Aunt River and her father.   
  


> _ Foreknowledge is dangerous. _
> 
> _ She has to be informed. She has to know. _
> 
> _ And have her go through the whole ordeal knowing the truth? _
> 
> _ You need to let her remember who I am, Doctor. That’s the way is needs to be. _   
>    
> 

“This book is wrong!” the Doctor decided. “What's wrong with this book, it's wrong.” He looked up at River, who was observing him. “What?”

“Oh, it's so strange when you go all baby-face.” River took out her journal. “How early is this for you?”

“Very early,” he said.

“This is only his second time meeting you,” Lilith told her.

River deflated, looking a bit dejected. “So you don't know who I am yet?”

“How do you know who I am?” the Doctor asked. “I don't always look the same.”

“I've got pictures of all your faces. You never show up in the right order though. I need the spotter's guide.”

The Doctor frowned. “Pictures,” he repeated, looking back at the book. “Why aren't there pictures?”

Understanding that the Doctor wasn’t going to answer any more questions, River turned to Lilith. “What was the last time he saw me, then?”

Lilith shifted, uncomfortably. “I’d rather not talk about it. It hasn’t happened to you yet. Spoilers, you know?”

“This whole book, it's a warning about the Weeping Angels. So why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?” the Doctor wondered.

“There was a bit about images,” River said.

“Yes! Hang on.” He flipped through the book. “'That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel.'”

Lilith furrowed her eyebrows. “I’m sorry, what?”

River took the book back. “What does that mean? ‘An image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel.’”

“But if an image of a Weeping Angel can become a Weeping Angel, then…” Lilith trailed off, looking at the Doctor in terror.

“Amy!” they cried.


	11. Angels Again

The Doctor ran up to the door of the transport. “Are you alright?” he called. “What's happening?”

“Doctor! Doctor, it's coming out of the television. The Angel is here!” Amy shouted.

“Don't take your eyes off it!” the Doctor ordered, taking out sonic screwdriver and using it on the keypad. “It can't move if you're looking. It's deadlocked.”

River tried to override the controls. “There is no deadlock.”

The Doctor ignored her. “Don’t blink, Amy! Don't even blink!”   
  
  


> _ Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. _

 

“What are you doing?” River asked him.

“Cutting the power. It's using the screen, I'm turning the screen off. It's no good, it's deadlocked the whole system.”

“There's no deadlock,” she repeated.

“There is now!”

“Help me!” Amy yelled.

“Amy! Can you turn it off?” Lilith yelled back. “The screen, can you turn it off?”

“I tried!”

“Try again! But whatever you do, don't take your eyes off the Angel!”

The Doctor and River were still trying to override the controls. “Each time it moves, it'll move faster. Don't even blink,” he warned Amy.

“I'm not blinking! Have you ever tried not blinking? It just keeps switching back on!” she shouted at him.

“Yeah, it's the Angel.”

“But it's just a recording.”

“No, anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel.” The Doctor looked at River. “What are you doing?”

She was using small blowtorch. “I'm trying to cut through. It's not even warm.”

“There is no way in, it's physically impossible.” Lilith kicked the transport in frustration.

“Doctor! What's it gonna do to me?” Amy asked.

He didn’t answer. “Just keep looking at it. Don't stop looking!”

“Just tell me. Tell me!”

The Doctor ran for the book and brought it back to just outside the transport door where he sat. “Amy, not the eyes. Look anywhere but don't look at the eyes!”

“Why?”

“What is it?” River questioned.

"‘The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter there,’" he read.

“Alright, that’s it!” Lilith pulled out her blaster and used the squareness gun setting to disintegrate the door. She marched into the transport and promptly shot the screen with the image of the Angel. The projection flickered, and then vanished.

“Nice shot,” Amy said.

Lilith holstered her blaster. “Thanks.”

River put her hand on Lilith’s shoulder. “Quick thinking, Lil.”

“Lilith, hug Amy,” the Doctor said.

“Why?”

“‘Cause I'm busy.”

Lilith shrugged and hugged the other ginger. “I'm fine,” Amy assured her.

“So it was here? That was the Angel?” River asked.

“That was a projection of the Angel,” the Doctor corrected. “It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant.” A distant explosion shook the transport. The Doctor went outside.

“Doctor! We’re through!” Octavian called to him.

The Doctor looked back at the girls. “Okay, now it starts.”

Lilith and River went to follow him. “Coming, Amy?”

Amy rubbed her left eye. “Yeah, coming. There's just something in my eye.” 

* * *

The Doctor climbed down a rope ladder to where Octavian was waiting at the bottom. They both turn on their flashlights and looked around. Lilith, Amy, and River joined them and the other soldiers.

“Do we have a gravity globe?” the Doctor asked.

“Grav globe,” Octavian requested. One of the soldiers took out a sphere from his backpack and handed it to him.

“Where are we? What is this?” inquired Amy.

“It's an Aplan mortarium. Sometimes called a maze of the dead,” River said.

“And what's that?”

“An ominous, dark, maze filled with creepy statues of dead people,” Lilith muttered.

“And, if you happen to be a creature of living stone,” the Doctor kicked the gravity sphere like a soccer ball and it rose into the air, stopped, and then lit up the cave showing a large number of stone statues, “the perfect hiding place.”

Octavian sighed. “I guess this makes it a bit trickier.”

“A bit, yeah.”

“A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for.”

“A needle in a haystack,” River commented.

The Doctor nodded. “A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle. Of death. A hay-alike needle of death in a haystack of, er, statues. No, yours was fine.”

“Right. Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for,” the Bishop ordered the clerics. “Complete visual inspection. One question, how do we fight it?”

“We find it, and hope.” The Doctor and Amy went off. 

Lilith started to follow, then realized that River had stayed back to talk to Octavian. “You coming, Aunt River?”

“Yeah.” The two of them caught up with the others.

The Doctor shined his flashlight in every direction. Amy was right behind him, but stopped suddenly. Lilith and River came up beside her. “You all right?”

“Yeah, I'm fine,” she said. “So, what's a maze of the dead?”

River waved a hand, dismissively. “Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just a labyrinth with dead people buried in the walls. Okay, that was fairly bad. Right give me your arm.” She held up a syringe. “This won't hurt a bit.” She gave Amy the shot.

Amy recoiled. “Ow!”

“There, you see. I lied. It's a viro-stabiliser,” River explained. “Stabilises your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship.”

“So what's he like?” Asked Amy, referring to the Doctor. “In the future, I mean. ‘Cause both of you know him in the future, don't you?”

“The Doctor? Well, the Doctor's the Doctor,” River said, vaguely.

“Oh, well that's very helpful. Mind if I write that down?”

“Yes, we are.” She had spoken to the Doctor.

He stopped taking readings with River’s device and looked up at them. “Sorry, what?”

“Talking about you,” she clarified.

“I wasn't listening, I'm busy.” He showed her the device.

“Ah. The other way up.”

The Doctor turned the device the other way around and looked over at River who merely raised her eyebrows. “Yeah.”

Amy smirked. “You're so his wife.”

Lilith grimaced. “Blech.”

“Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy!” River chided jokingly. “This is the Doctor we're talking about. Do you really think it could be anything that simple?”

“Yep.”

River smiled. “You're good. I'm not saying you're right, but you are very good.”

The Doctor, Lilith, and River were examining the statues when they heard gunfire. They ran back down to the main chamber. A young cleric had fired his weapon at one of the statues. The Doctor stopped to look at it.

“Sorry,” the cleric apologized. “Sorry, I thought, I thought it looked at me.”

“We know what the Angel looks like,” Octavian snapped. “Is that the Angel?”

“No, sir.”

“No, sir, it is not! According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor.”

“What's your name?” the Doctor asked.

“Bob, sir,” the cleric answered.

“Ah, that's a great name.”

“It's a Sacred Name. We all have Sacred Names, they're given to us in the service of the Church.”

The Doctor joined Bob and Octavian. “Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron. Carry on.”

“We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes. “You stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach,” Octavian told Bob.

The three travelers, River, and Octavian made their way into the maze and to the upper passageways.

“Isn't there a chance this lot's just gonna collapse?” Amy wondered. “There's a whole ship up there.”

“Incredible builders, the Aplans,” River assured her.

“Had dinner with their chief architect once,” the Doctor said. “Two heads are better than one.”

Amy furrowed her eyebrows. “You mean you helped him?”

“No, I mean he had two heads. That book, the very end, what did it say?”

“Hang on.” River got the book out of her bag. "‘What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels.’"

Lilith shivered. “Cheery.” They continued on.

“Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb.” Amy complained.

“The maze is on six levels representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go,” River said. “Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is…”

“Yeah, something wrong,” the Doctor agreed. “Don't know what it is yet either, working on it. Then they started having laws against self-marrying and what was that about? But that's the church for you. Er, no offence, Bishop.”

“Quite a lot taken, if that's all right, Doctor.” They entered a narrow passage lined with statues. “Lowest point in the wreckage is only about 50 feet up from here. That way.”

The Doctor froze and studied a statue. “Oh!”

Lilith frowned, looking at the stone. It dawned on her. “Oh, Rassilon.”

“Oh,” River breathed in realization. She stared at Lilith and the Doctor in horror.

“Exactly.”

“How could we not notice that?”

“Low level perception filter, or maybe we're just idiots.”

“What's wrong?” Amy asked,

“Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are,” the Doctor said. “Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in danger.”

“What danger?”

“The Aplans,” River answered.

“The Aplans?” Octavian repeated.

“They've got two heads.”

“Yes, I get that. So?”

The Doctor gestured around them. “So why don't the statues? Everyone, over there. Just move, don't ask questions, don't speak.” Everyone moved to a spot where there are no statues. “Okay. I want you all to switch off your torches.”

Lilith raised a hand. “Can I register my protest of that idea?”

“Just do it.” They turned off their flashlights. “Okay, I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment.”

“Are you sure about this?” River questioned.

“No.” The Doctor switched off his flashlight for a split second and the statues in front of them were facing them when it turned back on.

“Oh, my God! They've moved.” Amy gasped.

The Doctor ran ahead. The others followed after him as he looked at all the statues lining their way to the ship. “They're Angels. All of them!”

“But they can't be,” River protested.

“Clerics, keep watching them. Every statue in this maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel. They're coming after us.”

“There was only one Angel on the ship. Just the one, I swear.”

“They were already here,” Lilith whispered.

“The Aplans, how did they die out?” asked the Doctor.

River shrugged. “Nobody knows.”

“Five dollars says the Weeping Angels killed them all,” Lilith muttered.

“They don't look like Angels,” Octavian noticed.

“And they're not fast,” Amy added. “You said they were fast. They should have had us by now.”

“They're dying. Losing their form. They must have been down here for centuries, starving,” the Doctor explained. “Losing their image. And their image is their power. Power. Power!”

“Doctor?”

“Don't you see? All that radiation spilling out, the drive burn. The crash wasn't an accident - it was a rescue mission, for the Angels. We're in the middle of an army and it's waking up.”

“We need to get out of here fast,” River suggested.

Octavian spoke into the radio. “Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please. Any of you, come in!”

Static crackled before a voice spoke up. “ _It's Bob, sir. Sorry, sir._ ”

“Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you? All the statues are active. I repeat, all the statues are active!”

“ _ I know, sir. Angelo and Christian are dead, sir. The statues killed them, sir, _ ” said Bob.

The Doctor took the radio from Octavian. “Bob, Sacred Bob, it's me, the Doctor. Where are you now?”

“ _ I'm on my way up to you, sir, I'm homing on your signal. _ ”

“Well done, Bob. Scared keeps you fast, told you, didn’t I? Your friends, Bob, what did the Angel do to them?”

“ _ Snapped their necks, sir, _ ” Bob told him.

Lilith frowned. “But that's not how the Angels kill you. They displace you in time.” 

“Unless they needed the bodies for something,” the Doctor said.

Octavian took the radio back. “Bob, did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue plan.”

The Doctor snatched it out of his hand. “Don't be an idiot! The Angels don't leave you alive! Bob, keep running, but tell me, how did you escape?”

“ _ I didn't escape, sir. The Angel killed me, too. _ ”

They all looked at each other in confusion. “What do you mean the Angel killed you too?” the Doctor asked.

“ _ Snapped my neck, sir, _ ” Bob responded. “ _ Wasn't as painless as I expected but it was pretty quick, so that was something. _ ”

“If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?”

“ _ You're not talking to me, sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you. Sorry about the confusion. _ ”

“So when you say you're on your way up to us…”

“ _ It's the Angel that's coming, sir, yes. _ ”

Lilith swore in Gallifreyan. “There’s no way out.”

“Then we get out through the wreckage,” Octavian decided. “Go!”

“Go, go, go. All of you run!” the Doctor ordered.

“Dad--”

“I'm coming, Lilith. Stick with River. Just go!”

Lilith was about to protest, but decided against it and let River lead her away. Eventually Octavian followed them and, further along the passage, the trio and the clerics arrived at an open chamber and could see the  _ Byzantium _ above them. “Well, there it is. The _ Byzantium _ .”

“It's got to be thirty feet,” River noted. “How do we get up there?”

The Bishop turned to the clerics. “Check all these exits. I want them all secure.”

One of the clerics went to check the passages, and then returned. “The statues are advancing along all corridors. And, sir, my torch keeps flickering.”

“So does the gravity globe,” River added darkly.

The Doctor and Amy approached. “It's the Angels. They're coming. And they're draining the power for themselves.”

“Which means we won't be able to see them.”

“Which means we can't stay here.”

“Alright.” Lilith clapped her hands. “We’re surrounded by Weeping Angels coming to snap our necks, and we’re pretty much stuck. Who’s got an idea?”

“The statues are advancing on all sides and we don't have the climbing equipment to reach the  _ Byzantium _ ,” said Octavian.

“Yeah, that’s not helpful. At all.”

“There's no way up, no way back, no way out.” River looked at the Doctor. “No pressure, but this is usually when you have a really good idea. “

“There's always a way out,” he said. The lights flickered off again and when they came back on, the Angels were closer, blocking the passage. “There's always a way out.”

“ _ Doctor? Can I speak to the Doctor, please? _ ” Angel Bob’s voice crackled over the radio.

The Doctor took it. “Hello, Angels. What's your problem?”

“ _ Your power will not last much longer, and the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry, sir. _ ”

“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.

“ _There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end._ _I died in fear. You told me my fear would keep me alive but I died afraid, in pain and alone. You made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down._ ”

Lilith growled. Amy looked at her. “What are they doing?”

“They're trying to make him angry,” River whispered.

“ _ I'm sorry, sir. The Angels were very keen for you to know that. _ ”

The Doctor took a steadying breath. “Well then, the Angels have made their second mistake because I'm not going to let that pass. I'm sorry you're dead, Bob, but I swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier.”

“ _ But you're trapped, sir, _ ” Angel Bob reminded him, “ _ and about to die. _ ”

“Yeah, I'm trapped. Speaking of traps, this trap has got a great big mistake in it. A great big, whopping mistake!”

“ _ What mistake, sir? _ ”

The Doctor looked at Amy. “Trust me?”

“Yeah,” Amy confirmed.

He looked at River. “Trust me?”

“Always,” River said.

He looked at Lilith. “Trust me?”

“No doubt,” Lilith nodded.

He turned to Octavian. “You lot, trust me?”

“We have faith, sir.”

“Then give me your gun.” Octavian gave him the gun. “I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do, jump.”

“Jump where?” the Bishop questioned.

“Just jump, high as you can. Come on, leap of faith, Bishop. On my signal.”

“What signal?”

“You won't miss it.” The Doctor aimed the gun at the ceiling.

“ _ Sorry, can I ask again? _ ” Angel Bob asked. “ _ You mentioned a mistake? _ ”

“Oh, big mistake. Huge. There's one thing you never put in a trap, if you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap.”

“ _ And what would that be, sir? _ ”

“Me!” The Doctor fired at the gravity globe and it exploded.

 

TO BE CONTINUED


	12. The Byzantium

_ “Follow that ship!” _

 

_ “What do you two know of the Weeping Angels?” _

 

_ “Amy, not the eyes. Look anywhere but don't look at the eyes!” _

 

_ “All that radiation spilling out, the drive burn. The crash wasn't an accident - it was a rescue mission, for the Angels. We're in the middle of an army and it's waking up.” _

 

_ “Alright. We’re surrounded by Weeping Angels coming to snap our necks, and we’re pretty much stuck. Who’s got an idea?” _

 

_ “I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do, jump.” _

 

_ The Doctor fired at the gravity globe and it exploded. _

* * *

* * *

Lilith tried to regain her balance, recovering from the jump. Amy was sitting on the ground.

“Up! Look up!” the Doctor ordered.

River knelt next to Amy. “You okay?”

“What happened?” she asked.

“We jumped.”

“Jumped where? Where are we?”

“Exactly where we were,” Lilith answered

“No we're not.”

“Move your feet!” The Doctor shoved Lilith to the side and soniced an indentation on the floor.

Amy looked around. “Doctor, what am I looking at? Explain.”

“Oh, come on, Amy, think! The ship crashed with the power still on, yeah? So what else is still on?” He looked at her, expecting an answer.

“The artificial gravity,” said Lilith. 

“Exactly,” the Doctor agreed. “One good jump, and up we fell. Shot out the grav-globe to give us an updraft, and here we are!”

“Doctor. The statues, they look more like Angels now,” Octavian noticed.

“They're feeding on the radiation from the wreckage, draining all the power from the ship, restoring themselves. Within an hour, they'll be an army!” The indentation he had been sonicing opened up into the ship just as the lights started going out. “They're taking out the lights. Look at them, look at the Angels. Into the ship, now, quickly all of you!” He slipped into the hole.

“But how? Doctor!” Amy peered into the hole to see the Doctor standing upright.

“It's just a corridor. The gravity orientates to the floor. Now, in here, all of you., don't take your eyes off the Angels. Move, move, move!” He used the sonic on a keypad.

Lilith climbed through the hole and looked up at the others. “Well, don’t just stand there!”

“OK, men, go, go, go!” Octavian joined Lilith and the Doctor at the next door. “The Angels, presumably they can jump up too?”

The door closed once everyone was inside. “They're here. Now. In the dark, we're finished. Run!” the Doctor shouted. A large door behind them closed, blocking their only escape.

“This whole place is a death trap.”

“No, it's a time bomb,” the Doctor corrected. “Well, it's a death trap and a time bomb. And now it's a dead end. Nobody panic.”

The Angels banged on the exterior door.

“The homicidal statues are trying to get in. Can we panic now?” Lilith snapped.

“What’s through here?” the Doctor asked River.

“Secondary flight deck,” she answered and began to work on bypassing the power.

“Okay, so we've basically run up the inside of a chimney, yeah?” Amy said. “So what if the gravity fails?”

“I've thought about that,” the Doctor admitted.

“And?”

“And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See. I've thought about it.” He turned to River. “The security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them, it's impossible.”

“How impossible?” she questioned.

“Two minutes.”

The hum of the engines powered down and their way in had reopened, letting them see the cavern outside. “The hull is breached and the power's failing,” Octavian informed them.

Lilith rolled her eyes. “No, really? I couldn’t tell.”

The lights went out. When they turned back on, the arm of an Angel could be seen through the opening. “Sir! Incoming!” A cleric shouted. 

The Doctor used the sonic to help River. The lights came on briefly and they saw an Angel making its way inside. The lights went out again and came on brighter to reveal four Angels inside the corridor with them. Lilith swore in Gallifreyan.

“Clerics, keep watching them,” Octavian ordered.

“And don't look at their eyes,” the Doctor added. “Anywhere else. Not the eyes. I've isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power now.”

“Good work, Doctor.”

“Yes. good. Good in many ways, good you like it so far.”

Lilith narrowed her eyes at her father. “So far?”

“Well, there's only one way to open this door. I guess I'll need to route all the power in this section through the door control.”

“And that includes the lights,” she guessed. “All of them. You’d need to turn out the lights.”

“How long for?” Octavian asked.

“Fraction of a second, maybe longer.” The Doctor frowned. “Maybe quite a bit longer.”

“Maybe?”

“I'm guessing. We're being attacked by statues in a crashed ship, there isn't a manual for this!”

“Doctor, we lost the torches,” Amy reminded him. “We'll be in total darkness.”

“No other way,” he said.

Octavian turned to River. “Dr. Song, I've lost good Clerics today. You trust this man?”

River nodded. “I absolutely trust him.”

“He's not some kind of madman then?”

“I absolutely trust him.”

Lilith snorted.

Octavian glared at the blonde. “I'm taking your word, because you're the only one who can manage this guy. But that only works so long as he doesn't know who you are. You cost me any more men, and I might just tell him. Understood?”

“Understood.”

The Bishop faced the clerics. “Combat distance, ten feet. As soon as the lights go down, continuous fire. Full spread over the hostiles. Do not stop firing while the lights are out. Shotgun protocol, we don't have bullets to waste.”

Lilith drew her blaster and stood with the clerics.

“Amy, when the lights go down, the wheel should release. Spin it clockwise, four turns,” the Doctor instructed her.

“Ten,” Amy said.

“No, four, four turns.”

“Yeah, four, I heard you.” She took her position at the door.

“Ready!” The Doctor placed the sonic into the circuit.

Octavian prepared himself. “On my count then. God be with us all. Three... two...one.” The lights went out. “Fire!”

The clerics opened fire on the Angels. The Doctor, Lilith, Amy, and River tried to get the door open.

“Turn!”

“Doctor, quickly!”

“It's opening, it's working!”

The girls slipped through the opening. The clerics went through the doorway followed by Octavian and the Doctor. They moved down a similar hall to another door. The Doctor held the door open with the sonic as the others went through through.

“Come on, Dad!” Lilith insisted.

The Doctor ran to join them as the door closed quickly behind him. The flight deck was in major disrepair with exposed wires all over the console. The Doctor immediately went to one of the controls. The hatch lock spun shut and Octavian placed a device on the door.

“What are you doing?” Amy asked.

“Magnetized the door,” he replied. “Nothing could turn that wheel now.”

“Yeah,” said Lilith, “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

The wheel began to turn behind him. “Dear God!”

“Now you're getting it. You've bought us time though, that's good. We can work with time.”

“Doctor!” Amy pointed at another spinning door wheel _. _

“Seal that door. Seal it now!” Octavian ordered. A cleric placed a magnetic device on the second door. The third door began to spin open. “That one too!”

“We're surrounded!” River growled.

“Doctor, how long have we got?”

“Five minutes, max,” the Doctor reported.

“Nine,” said Amy.

He looked at her. “Five.”

She nodded. “Five, right yeah.”

“Why d'you say nine?”

“I didn't.”

Lilith frowned. ‘ _ She said ‘ten’ before. Now she said ‘nine’. Is she counting down? _ ’

‘ _ Possibly. But counting down to what? _ ’

“We need another way out of here,” River stated.

“There isn't one,” said Octavian.

“Yeah, there is, course there is. This is a galaxy class ship, goes for years between planet-falls. So,” the Doctor snapped his fingers, “what do they need?”

River and Lilith understood at the same time. “Of course,” they breathed.

“Of course, what?” Amy inquired. “What do they need?”

“Can we get in there?” Octavian asked.

“Well, it's a sealed unit, but they must have installed it somehow. This whole wall should slide up.” The Doctor pressed his ear against the rear wall. “There's clamps. Release the clamps!” He buzzed the sonic.

“What's through there? What do they need?” repeated Amy.

“They need to  _ breathe _ ,” Lilith replied.

The door slowly rose. The Doctor smiled and Amy was awestruck. “But that's... that's a…” The door opened fully to reveal lush vegetation and trees.

“It's an oxygen factory.”

“It's a forest.”

“The forest is an oxygen factory.”

“And, if we're lucky, it’s an escape route,” the Doctor added.

“Eight.”

River frowned at Amy. “What did you say?”

Amy looked confused. “Nothing.”

“Is there another exit?” the Doctor wondered. “Scan the architecture, we don't have time to get lost in there.”

“On it!” Octavian stepped into forest. “Stay where you are until I've checked the Rad levels.”

“But trees!” the ginger human reiterated. “On a spaceship?”

“Oh, more than trees, way better than trees. You're going to love this,” the Doctor said excitedly. “Treeborgs.” He opened a section of moss to reveal circuitry. “Trees plus technology. Branches become cables, become sensors on the hull. A forest sucking in starlight, breathing out air. It even rains. There's a whole mini-climate. It is an eco-pod running through the heart of the ship. A forest in a bottle, on a spaceship, in a maze. Have I impressed you yet, Amy Pond?”

Amy chuckled. “Seven.”

The Doctor looked at Lilith, then back at Amy. “Seven?”

“Sorry, what?”

“You said seven.” He studied her face.

“No. I didn't.”

“Yes,” said Lilith, “you did.”

“Doctor!” Octavian called. “There's an exit, far end of the ship, into the Primary Flight Deck.”

The Doctor nodded. “Good, that's where we need to go.”

The radio crackled. “ _ Doctor? Excuse me. Hello, Doctor? Angel Bob here, sir. _ ”

The Time Lord flopped into the command chair. “Ah. there you are, Angel Bob. How's life? Sorry, bad subject.”

Lilith snickered

“ _ The Angels are wondering what you hope to achieve, _ ” Angel Bob said.

“Achieve? We’re not achieving anything. We're just hanging. It's nice in here, consoles, comfy chairs, a forest. How's things with you?”

“ _ The Angels are feasting, sir, _ ” the Angel told the Doctor. “ _ Soon we will be able to absorb enough power to consume this vessel, this world, and all the stars and worlds beyond. _ ”

“Well, we've got comfy chairs, did I mention?”

“ _ We have no need of comfy chairs. _ ”

The Doctor grinned. “I made him say comfy chairs!”

“Six,” Amy laughed.

He jumped to his feet. “Okay, well, enough chat. Here’s what I want to know, what have you done to Amy?”

“ _ There is something in her eye, _ ” Angel Bob responded.

“What's in her eye?”

“ _ We are. _ ”

“What's he talking about?” Amy asked. “Doctor, I'm five. I mean, five. Fine! I'm fine.”

Lilith put her hand on her shoulder. “You're counting down. From ten. You have been for a couple of minutes.”

“Why?”

“We don't know.”

Amy trembled. “Well, counting down to what?”

Lilith glanced at the Doctor. “We don't know.”

“ _ We shall take her. We shall take all of you. We shall have dominion over all time and space. _ ”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Get a life, Bob. Oops, sorry again. There's power on this ship, but nowhere near that much.”

“ _ With respect, sir, there is more power on this ship than you yet understand. _ ”

There was a loud, horrible screeching noise. River covered her ears. “Dear God, what is it?”

“ _ It's hard to put in your terms, Dr. Song, but as best I understand it, the Angels are laughing. _ ”

“Laughing?” the Doctor echoed.

“Because you haven't noticed yet. The Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed.” The Angel’s tone was almost teasing, taunting. Lilith was reminded of the multi-form saying something similar.   
  
  


> _ The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Doesn't know, doesn't know! _

  
  


The Doctor frowned.. No, wait, there's something I've,” he slowly turned around to see a glowing crack high in the wall, “missed.” He ran to the wall.

Amy gaped at it. “That's... that's like the crack from my bedroom wall from when I was a little girl.”

“Exactly the same,” Lilith agreed, unsettled.   
  
  


> _ Two parts of space and time that should never have touched. _

  
  


“Okay, enough!” Octavian declared. “We're moving out!”

River nodded. “Agreed. Doctor?”

“Yeah. Fine!” He was using the sonic to scan the crack.

“What are you doing?”

“Right with you.”

“We're not leaving without you!” Lilith protested.

“Oh, yes you are. Bishop?”

“Miss Pond, Dr. Song, Collector, now!” the Bishop ordered. River grabbed Amy and Lilith and pulled them deeper into the forest.

Octavian and the clerics were walking slowly through the forest, keeping the three girls safely in the center. Amy slowed down with a strange, almost sickly look on her face. River noticed. “Amy? Amy, what's wrong?”

“Four,” she whimpered and curled up on a moss-covered rock

“Med-scanner, now!” River shouted. One of the clerics gives one to her.

“Dr. Song, we can't stay here,” Octavian insisted. “We've got to keep moving.”

“No, we wait for the Doctor,” Lilith said, firmly as River used the scanner on Amy.

“Our mission is to make this wreckage safe and neutralize the Angels. Until that is achieved--”

River spun to face the Bishop. “Father Octavian, when the Doctor is in the room, your only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home. And trust me. It's not easy. Now, if he's dead back there, I'll never forgive myself, and if he's alive, I'll never forgive him. And, Doctor, you're standing right behind me, aren't you?”

The Doctor smirked.“Oh, yeah.”

She glared at him. “I hate you!”

“No you don't. Bishop, the Angels are in the forest.” He went to Amy’s side.

“How did you get past them?” Lilith asked.

“Found a crack in the wall and told them it was the end of the universe.”

“What was it really?”

“The end of the universe. Let's have a look then.” The Doctor checked the med scanner. 

“So, what's wrong with me?” Amy queried.

“Nothing, you're fine,” River assured her.

“Everything, you're dying,” the Doctor said.

“Doctor!” River chided as Lilith hissed, “Dad!”

He looked at them both. “Yes, you're right, if we lie to her, she'll get all better!” he snapped. “Right. Amy! Amy. what's the matter with Amelia? Something's in her eye. What does that mean?” 

“Doctor, I’m scared!” Amy whimpered.

“‘Course, you're dying, shut up!”

“Dad!”

The Doctor stood. “What happened? She stared at the Angel, she looked into the eyes of an angel for too long.”

“Sir! Angel, incoming!” a cleric warned.

“Keep visual contact, do not let it move!” Octavian barked.

The Doctor paced and slapped the side of his head. “Come on, wakey, wakey! She watched an Angel climb out of the screen. She stared at the Angel and…”

“The image of an Angel is an Angel,” Lilith reminded him.

“A living image in a human mind. We stare at them to stop them getting closer, we don't even blink and that's exactly what they want, ‘cause as long as our eyes are open, they can climb inside. There's an Angel in her mind.”

“Three,” Amy said. “Doctor, it's coming. I'm going to die!”

Lilith gripped her hand. “We won’t let you, Amy. Got that?”

“Please just shut up, I'm thinking. Now counting, what's that about?” The Doctor held up the radio. “Bob, why are they making her count?”

“ _ To make her afraid, sir, _ ” Angel Bob answered.

“What for?”

“ _ For fun, sir. _ ”

The Doctor growled in frustration and threw away the radio.

“Doctor, what's happening to me? Explain!” Amy demanded.

“Inside your head, in the vision centers of your brain, there's an Angel. It's like there's a screen, a virtual screen inside your mind, and the Angel is climbing out of it, and it's coming to shut you off.” He stood. “If it was a real screen, we'd pull the plug. But we can't just knock her out, the Angel would take over!”

“Then what? Quickly!” River rushed him.

“We’ve got to shut down the vision centers of her brain. We've got to pull the plug, starve the Angel.”

“Doctor, she's got seconds.”

“Amy, close your eyes!” Lilith ordered.

“No, no, I don't want to,” she protested.

“Good,” said the Doctor, “because that's not you, that's the Angel inside you, it's afraid! Do it! Close your eyes!”

Amy hesitated but closed her eyes. The scanner beeped and the readings returned to green. “She's normalizing.” River sighed. “You did it! You did it!”

“Sir? Two more incoming,” a cleric informed them.

“Three more over here,” another added.

Lilith checked the scanner. “She’s still too weak. It’s too dangerous to move her.”

Amy sat up. “So, can I open my eyes now?”

The Doctor knelt in front of her. “Amy, listen to me. If you open your eyes now for more than a second, you will die. The Angel is still inside you. We haven't stopped it, we've just sort of paused it. You've used up your countdown. You cannot open your eyes.”


	13. Angels Erased

“Doctor, we're too exposed here. We have to move on,” insisted Octavian.

The Doctor straightened up. “We're exposed everywhere, and Amy can't move, and anyway, that's not the plan.”

Lilith sat next to Amy, comforting her. “There's a plan?” she asked, skeptically. 

“I don't know yet, I haven’t finished talking. Right! Father, you and your Clerics will stay here, look after Amy. If anything happens to her, I'll hold each of you personally responsible, twice. River, you, me, and Lilith, we're going to find the Primary Flight Deck, which is,” He licked his finger and held it up to test the air, “a quarter mile straight ahead. We'll stabilize the wreckage, stop the Angels, and cure Amy.”

“How?” River questioned.

“I'll do a thing.”

“What thing?”

“I don’t know, it's a thing in progress. Respect the thing. Moving out!”

“Doctor, I'm coming with you. My clerics can look after Miss Pond. These are my best men, they'd lay down their lives in her protection,” Octavian said.

“I don't need you,” the Doctor snipped.

“I don't care. Where Dr. Song goes, I go.” Octavian’s tone left no room for argument.

“What,” the Doctor looked at River, then back to Octavian, “you two engaged or something?”

Lilith snorted, earning odd looks from everyone in the group.

“Yes, in a manner of speaking. Marco, you're in charge till I get back.” Octavian started off with River. Lilith went after them. Doctor said something to Amy before joining her in following the two, slipping his hand into hers and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

The Bishop lead River, Lilith, and the Doctor through the forest. Something in the Doctor’s pocket beeped. “Ooh.” He took out a gadget of some sort.

“What's that?” River asked.

“Readings from a crack in a wall.”

“How is the crack in the wall the end of the universe?” Lilith questioned.

“Here's what I think,” the Doctor said. “One day there'll be a very big bang, so big every moment in history-- past and future-- will crack.”

River frowned. “Is that possible? How?”

“How can you be engaged in a manner of speaking?” he countered.

“Well, sucker for a man in uniform.” She smiled.

“And in coats from World War II,” Lilith muttered under her breath.

River’s smile turned confused. “Like Captain Harkness’?”

The young Time Lady cleared her throat. “Yeah, forget I said anything.”

Octavian walked over. “Dr. Song is in my personal custody. I released her from the Stormcage Containment Facility four days ago and I am legally responsible for her until she has accomplished her mission and earned her pardon. Just so we understand each other.”

The Doctor looked at River. “You were in Stormcage?” His gadget beeped.

“What? What is that?”

“The date!” he exclaimed. “The date of the explosion where the crack begins.”

“And for those of us who can't read the base code of the universe?” River studied what must’ve look like nonsense to her, but Lilith understood. It sent a shiver down her spine.

“June twenty sixth, 2010,” Lilith breathed. “Amy’s time!”

Once they made it to to a dead end, the Doctor took readings from the handheld while River and Lilith stood guard as Octavian looked for a way in. “It doesn't open it from here,” he concluded, “but it's the Primary Flight Deck. This has got to be a service hatch or something.”

“Hurry up and open it, time's running out,” River reminded him.

The Doctor’s head jerked up. “What? What did you say? Time's running out, is that what you said?”

“Yeah. I just meant--”

“I know what you meant. Hush! But what if it could?’

“What if what could?”

“Time. What if time could run out?”

Octavian found the service hatch. “Got it!”

“Cracks in time, time running out.” The Doctor continued to muse. “No, couldn't be. How is a duck pond a duck pond if there aren't any ducks? And she didn't recognize the Daleks! Okay, time can shift. Time can change. Time can be rewritten.”

“Dr. Song, Collector, get through, now.” Octavian helped the two of them through the hatch and they moved on. 

Lilith heard one last bit of the Doctor’s muttering. “Time can be unwritten.”

“What was he talking about?” River wondered.

“If I knew half the things that were going on in my father’s head.” Lilith sighed. “He had an argument with Amy about duck ponds when we met her for the second time. And on her second trip there were Daleks in the middle of the Blitz and she didn’t recognize them.”

“Why would Amy recognize Daleks?”

“There was an invasion in 2009, twenty six planets and the moon of Poosh were teleported to the Medusa Cascade by Davros. Hard to miss, that kind of thing. That was the first time my mother got back from the parallel universe. Have you met her yet?”

“No.” River let that sink in. “But what does that have to do with time being rewritten?”

Lilith shrugged. “Maybe that ‘very big bang’ he mentioned caused time to rewrite itself and the Dalek invasion never happened. But then the stars never went out, Mom never came home, and the metacrisis never happened.” She clutched her head. “Rassilon, it hurts to figure out.”

The Doctor caught up with them. “Come on,” he said. They made it to the primary flight deck.

River went over what was on the console. “There's a teleport! If I can get it to work, we can beam the others here. Where's Octavian?”

“Octavian's dead, so is that teleport. You're wasting your time. I'm going to need your communicator.” The Doctor took her communicator.

“We may not be able to fix the teleport, but you know I can fix?” Lilith managed a smile. “My vortex manipulator.”

The Doctor spoke into the communicator as Lilith started working on her manipulator. “Amy?”

“ _ Doctor? _ ” Amy’s voice came through the radio.

“Where are you?” he asked. “Are the clerics with you?”

“ _ They've gone. There was a light and they walked into the light. Doctor, they didn't even remember each other. _ ” She sounded a bit more panicked.

“No, they wouldn't,” muttered the Doctor.

“What is that light?” River wondered.

“Time running out.” Then, into the radio, “Amy. I'm sorry. We should never have left you there.”

“ _ Well, what do I do now _ ?”

The Doctor responded with confidence. “You come to us. Primary Flight Deck, other end of the forest.”

“ _ I can't see! _ ” Amy reminded him. “ _ I can't open my eyes. _ ”

He buzzed the sonic at the communicator. “Turn on the spot. When the communicator sounds like my screwdriver, you're facing the right way. Follow the sound. You have to start moving now. There's time energy spilling out of that crack and you have to stay ahead of it.”

Her voice shook. “ _But the Angels, they're everywhere._ ”

“I'm sorry, I really am, but the Angels can only kill you.”

“ _ What does the Time Energy do? _ ”

“If the Time Energy catches up with you, you'll never have been born. It will erase every moment of your existence. You will never have lived at all. Now, keep your eyes shut and keep moving!”

“It's never going to work,” River worried.

“What else have you got?” the Doctor shouted. “River, tell me!” When she said nothing, the Doctor turned back to the communicator. “Amy, listen to me. I'm sending a bit of software to your communicator. It's a proximity detector. It'll beep if there's something in your way. You just maneuver till the beeping stops. Because, Amy, this is important. The forest is full of Angels. You're going to have to walk like you can see.”

“ _ Well, what do you mean? _ ” Amy asked. 

“Look, just keep moving.”

“That time energy,” River said, “what's it going to do?”

The Doctor hesitated. “Er, keep eating.”

“How do we stop it?” she wondered. 

“Feed it.”

“Feed it?” Lilith frowned. “Feed it what?”

“A big complicated space-time event should shut it up for a while.”

“Like what, for instance?” River prodded. 

“Like me, for instance!” shouted the Doctor, irritated. 

A high-pitched beeping echoed through the flight deck. “ _ What's that? _ ” came Amy’s voice. 

The Doctor spoke into the radio. “It's a warning. There are Angels around you now. Amy, listen to me. This is going to be hard but I know you can do it. The Angels are scared and running and right now they're not that interested in you. They'll assume you can see them and their instincts will kick in. All you've got to do is walk like you can see. Just don't open your eyes. Walk like you can see. You're not moving. You have to do this.  _ Now! _ ” He banged his hand against the instrument panel. “You have to do this!”

“Got it!” Lilith crowed, and pressed a button on the vortex manipulator. When she materialized in the ‘forest’, Amy was on the ground surrounded by Angels. She grabbed Amy’s hand, put it on the teleport, and brought them back to the Primary Flight Deck. “Don't open your eyes. You're on the Flight Deck, the Doctor's here. I teleported you.”

“Lilith, I could bloody kiss you,” the Doctor declared. 

“Maybe later, Dad.” An alarm blared _. _ “What's that?”

“The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power, which means…” The Doctor jumped up. “The shield's going to release!”

The shield to the forest opened and the four were confronted by a large number of Angels. The Doctor stepped forward. “Angel Bob, I presume.”

_ “The Time Field is coming. It will destroy our reality _ .” Angel Bob’s voice crackled over the communicator.

“Yeah, and look at you, all running away. What can I do for you?”

_ “There is a rupture in time. The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself into it, it will close and they will be saved. _ ”

The Doctor crossed his arms. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could do, could do that. But why?”

“ _ Your friends would also be saved, _ ” the Angel pointed out.

“Well, there is that.” he admitted.

River stepped up to the Doctor. “I've travelled in time. I'm a complicated space time event, too. Throw me in.”

“No, it’s best for me to go,” Lilith argued. “I’m a Time Lady  _ and _ temporally misplaced. Nothing changes if I’m wiped out, no paradoxes would be created.”

“Oh, be serious!” the Doctor snapped. “Compared to me, these Angels are more complicated than you two and it would take every one of them to amount to me, so get a grip.”

River stood firm. “Doctor, we can't let you do this.”

“No, seriously, get a grip.”

“You're not going to die here!”

The Doctor glanced at the console pointedly. “No, I mean it. Lilith, River, Amy, get a grip.”

River’s eyes widened. “Oh, you genius!”

“ _ Sir, the Angels need you to sacrifice yourself now, _ ” Angel Bob insisted. 

“You hold on tight and don't you let go for anything,” River told the two other girls. Lilith grabbed a handle attached to the panel.

“Thing is, Bob, the Angels are draining all the power from this ship, every last bit of it. And you know what? I think they've forgotten where they're standing. I think they've forgotten the gravity of the situation. Or to put it another way, Angels…” The Doctor smirked. “Night-night.”

As the gravity failed due to the loss of power, the Doctor casually turned to grip a handle himself. The deck turned to its side and the Doctor, Lilith, Amy and River hung on for dear life as the Angels were sucked into the crack. The was a burst of light and the crack in the secondary flight deck closed.

* * *

Amy was leaning on a rock, wrapped in a blanket. The Doctor and Lilith stood next to her with a cleric behind them.

“Ah, Bruised everywhere,” Amy complained. 

“Me too,” Lilith muttered, rubbing her sore arms. 

“You didn't have to climb out with your eyes shut.”

“Neither did you,” the Doctor pointed out. “I kept saying. The Angels all fell into the time field. The Angel in your memory never existed. It can't harm you now.”

“Then why do I remember it at all?” Amy protested. “Those guys on the ship didn't remember each other.”

Lilith was the one to explain. “You're a time traveller now, Amy. It's changed the way you see the universe forever. Good, isn't it?”

“And the crack. Is that gone too?”

“It's closed, don't worry,” Lilith assured her.

“For now,” the Doctor amended. “But the explosion that caused it is still happening... somewhere out there, somewhere in time.” He looked out at the ocean before walking over to River. 

The blonde chuckled. “You, me...handcuffs.” She held up her hands, encased in cuffs. “Must it always end this way?”

Lilith flinched, remembering locking her father in handcuffs last time they ran into River. 

“What now?”

“The prison ship's in orbit. They'll beam me up any second. I might have done enough to earn a pardon this time. We'll see.” She smiled. 

“Octavian said you killed a man,” the Doctor said, bluntly. 

River nodded. “Yes. I did. A good man. A very good man. The best man I've ever known.”

“Who?” He questioned.

She sighed. “It's a long story, Doctor, can't be told. It has to be lived. No sneak previews. Well, except for this one: you'll see me again quite soon, when the Pandorica opens.”

  
  


> _ The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall. _

  
  


“The Pandorica, ha!” the Doctor scoffed. “That's a fairy tale.”

River laughed. “Oh, Doctor, aren't we all? I'll see you there.”

He clasped his hands behind his back. “I look forward to it.”

“I remember it well.”

The Doctor chuckled and walked over. “Bye, River.”

“See you, Amy. And Lilith, well, I know how you feel about goodbyes.” The handcuffs beeped. “Oh! I think that's my ride.”

“Can I trust you. River Song?” the Doctor questioned. 

“If you like, but where's the fun in that?” River laughed and was teleported away. The Doctor turned and looked out at the ocean.

“What are you thinking?” Lilith asked. 

He looked at her before starting back towards the TARDIS. “Time can be rewritten.”

He and Lilith went straight to the console and sent the ship into the vortex. Amy plopped down on he jump seat.  _ “ _ I want to go home.”

The Doctor looked down. “Okay,” he said, quietly. 

Amy smiled and joins them _. _ “No, not like that! I just… I just want to show you something. You're running from River. I'm running too.”


	14. Absolutely Not

Amy leaned on console flirtily. Lilith watched with interest as the Doctor reached past her, hit a lever, stepped away. “Oh typical bloke,” Amy snorted, “straight to fixing his motor.”

“That’s the thing Amy, I am not a typical bloke,” the Doctor said.

Lilith glanced between the two of them. “Did you try to kiss him?” she asked the other ginger.

“ _ Did _ kiss him,” Amy corrected. “Tried to  _ shag _ him.”

Lilith snickered. “And how did that work out?”

“Not so well.”

“How are you not cross, Lilith?” the Doctor demanded. “I seem to recall you pulling Reinette off of me when she tried to snog me.”

“Madam de Pompous-ass wasn’t our companion,” Lilith reminded him. “This is just plain amusing.”

Amy crossed her arms. “Sorry, did I do something wrong? ‘Cause I’m getting kind of mixed signals here.” She slapped a lever down.

“Mixed signals?” The Doctor slapped the lever up. “How?”

“Oh come on, you turn up in the middle of the night, get me out of my bed in my nightie which you then don’t let me change out of for ages, and take me for a spin in your time machine. No, no, you’re right, no mixed signals there.  _ That _ is just a signal. Like a great big bat signal in the sky, get your coat off the Doctor is in.”

Lilith laughed; the Doctor glared at her. “No! No, no, no, no, no. It’s not like that. That’s not what I’m like.”

“Then what are you like?” Amy asked.

“I don’t know. Gandalf. I’m a space Gandalf, or the little green one in Star Wars.” He made a lightsaber noise.

“Yoda,” Lilith supplied.

“That’s the one.”

“You really are not. You are a bloke.” Amy poked him in the chest.

“I’m the Doctor,” he argued.

“Every room you walk into you laugh at all the men and show off to all the girls.”

“Do not.”

“What about Rory?” Amy asked. The Doctor snorted. “You laughed!”

The Doctor stopped laughing. “No, that was just an involuntary snort. Of fondness. Lilith, help me!”

Lilith raised her hands. “I’m just here to observe.”

“You are a bloke and you don’t know it,” Amy accused.

“That is not why you’re here,” the Doctor said.

She grabbed his suspenders. “Then why am I here?”

“Because!” The Doctor grew serious. “Because I can’t see it any more.” He turned away.

“See what?”

He sank onto the jump seat. “I’m 907. After a while you just can’t see it.”

“See what?” Amy asked again.

“Everything. I look at a star and it’s just a big ball of burning gas and I know how it began, I know how it ends, and I was probably there both times. Now after a while everything is just stuff. That’s the problem. You make all of space and time your backyard and what do you have? A backyard. But you!” The Doctor grabbed her hands. “You can see it. And when you see it, I see it.”

She looked at him skeptically. “And that’s the only reason you took me with you.”

“There was reasons.”

“I was certainly hoping so. Does that mean I’m not the first then?” Amy turned to Lilith. “There have been others travelling with you two?”

Lilith shrugged. “A couple while I’ve been here.”

“Yeah, sure, loads of them,” the Doctor said. “But just friends, you know chums, pals, mates, buddies. Not mates forget mates.”

Amy’s voice took on a forced conversational tone. “And out of all those friends, how many would you say, just out of curiosity, were girls?”

The Doctor shifted. “Some of them I suppose must have been.”

“Some?”

“It’s hard to tell, it’s a gray area.”

“Under half, over half?” Amy prompted.

“Probably, slightly, little bit over?” he admitted.

“Hm.” She raised an eyebrow. “Young?”

“Everyone’s young compared to me,” he defended.

“Not Uncle Jack,” Lilith pointed out. “He’s got to be around twice your age.”

Amy ignored her input. “Hot?”

The Doctor spluttered. “No! No, no, no, none of them. Not really. Not at all. Probably not.” He hesitated. “Maybe one or two. I didn’t really notice.”

Lilith snorted.

“Well this big old machine must have some kind of visual records,” Amy said.

“No,” the Doctor denied. “And anyway they’re voice locked.”

“Oh, voice locked. So I would just have to say 'show me all visual records of previous TARDIS inhabitants’?”

“No. No, I mean voice locked.  _ I _ would have to say 'show me all visual records of previous TARDIS inhabitants.’”

“Oh, thank you!” Amy chirped and leaned on the railing to look at the monitor.

“No! No! No! No!” The Doctor shouted, and then raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Thanks! Thanks dear. Leave out the metal dog why don’t you?”

Amy looked over at Lilith. “Is your mother on this list?”

“That,” Lilith said, “would be telling.”

Returning her attention to the pictures of past companions, Amy’s eyes widened. “Is that a leather bikini?”

“Right, that’s it. Rory!” the Doctor yelled. “We’re gonna find Rory and we’re gonna find him now!”

Amy pouted. “He’s at his stag night.”

“Well then,” the Doctor smirked, pulling a lever, “let’s make it a great one.”


	15. The Floating City

Lilith shoved her way through the crowded bar looking for Rory Williams. She had to get to him before the Doctor did whatever stupid thing he was planning to do. She heard the human before she saw him. "Hey! It's me! Hello! How are you? The reason for this call is because I haven't told you for seven hours that I love you, which is a scandal, and even if we weren't getting married tomorrow, I'd ask you to marry me anyway. Yes, I would, because you are smashing."   
  
"Rory!" Lilith shouted over the music.    
  
Rory clearly heard her, as his eyes went wide when he caught sight of the Time Lady. "Oh. Oh, blimey. I've, I-I, I'll see you tomorrow." He hung up. "Lilith? What are you doing here?"   
  
"I came to warn you."   
  
"Warn me?"   
  
"Considering what happened between him and your fiancée, my dad's probably about to do something incredibly stupid--" Lilith was cut off by 'The Stripper' starting to play. Behind Rory, a large cake was being wheeled in. His friends poked him and he turned around.    
  
"Out! Out! Out!" they all chanted.    
  
Lilith cringed as the Doctor popped his head through the top of the cake. The chanting stopped, but the music continued. Rory shook his head in disbelief and the Doctor looked around, bemused. He turned and saw Rory. "Rory! That's a relief. I thought I'd burst out of the wrong cake. Again. That reminds me, there's a girl outside in a bikini. Could someone let her in, give her a jumper? Lucy. Lovely girl. Now, then. Rory. We need to talk about your fiancee. She tried to kiss me." Everyone gasped. "Tell you what, though. You're a lucky man, she's a great kisser." Someone dropped his glass and they all stared at the Doctor. Lilith groaned. "Funny how you can say something in your head and it sounds fine..."   
  
"Get out of the cake, Dad." Lilith grabbed Rory's wrist and led him towards the door. "I think this is a good place to end the night."

* * *

Amy was pacing nervously. Lilith was sitting on the jump seat, watching Rory's reaction. The Doctor was in a harness seat in the space underneath the TARDIS console doing some welding work.    
  
"Oh! The life out there, it dazzles. I mean, it blinds you to the things that are important. I've seen it devour relationships and plans--" The console sparked. "Oh! It's meant to do that. Because for one person to have seen all that, to taste the glory and then go back, it will tear you apart. So we're sending you somewhere. Together."   
  
Amy blinked. "Whoa! What, like a date?"   
  
"Anywhere you want, any time you want." The Doctor joined them by the console. "One condition, it has to be amazing. The Moulin Rouge in 1890! The first Olympic Games! Think of it as a wedding present, because, frankly, it's either this or tokens."    
  
Lilith cleared her throat. "Dad, new passenger," she reminded him.    
  
The Doctor noticed Rory's stunned expression. "It's a lot to take in, isn't it? Tiny box, huge room inside. What's that about? Let me explain."   
  
"It's another dimension," Rory said.    
  
"It's basically another dimen--" The Doctor paused. "What?"   
  
Rory shrugged. "After Prisoner Zero, I've been reading up on all the latest scientific theories; FTL travel, parallel universes."   
  
Lilith laughed. "Ooh, I like you, Rory Williams."   
  
"I like the bit when someone says, 'It's bigger on the inside!'" The Doctor pouted. "I always look forward to that."   
  
"So, this date." Amy pushed along the more important topic. "I'm kind of done with running down corridors. What do you think, Rory?"   
  
"How about somewhere romantic?" the Doctor suggested. "What do you think, Lilith?"   
  
' _ Venice? _ '   
  
_ 'Venice.' _   
  
"I know just the place." Lilith set the TARDIS in motion. She and the Doctor did they customary dance around the console as they materialized.    
  
The Doctor threw the doors open. "Venice!" he declared. "Venezia! La Serenissima! Impossible city. Preposterous city! Founded by refugees running from Attila the Hun. It was just a collection of little wooden huts in the marsh, but became one of the most powerful cities in the world. Constantly being invaded, constantly flooding. Constantly. Just beautiful! Oh, you gotta love Venice. And so many people did. Byron, Napoleon, Casanova. Oooh, that reminds me." He checked his watch. "1580. That's all right. Casanova isn't born for 145 years. Don't want to run into him. I owe him a chicken."   
  
Rory looked at him. "You owe Casanova a chicken?"   
  
"Never bet against Casanova," Lilith advised. "It won't end well for you."   
  
An official dressed in black stepped out in front of the Doctor. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Papers, if you please. Proof of residency, current bill of medical inspection."   
  
The Doctor held up the psychic paper. "There you go, fella. All to your satisfaction, I think you'll find."   
  
The official bowed deeply. "I am so sorry, Your Holiness. I didn't realize."   
  
"No worries," the Doctor dismissed. "You were just doing your job. Sorry, what exactly is your job?"   
  
"Checking for aliens, visitors from foreign lands what might bring the plague with them."   
  
"Oh, that's nice. See where you bring me?" Amy slapped the Doctor's arm. "The plague!"   
  
"Don't worry, Viscountess." The official bowed to her. "No, we're under quarantine here, no one comes in, no one goes out, and all because of the grace and wisdom of our patron, Signora Rosanna Calvierri."   
  
"How interesting. I heard the plague died out years ago," said the Doctor.    
  
"Not out there. No, Signora Calvierri has seen it with her own eyes. Streets are piled high with bodies, she said."   
  
"Did she, now?"   
  
Rory reached for the psychic paper as the official went off to question someone else. "According to this, I am your eunuch!"   
  
"Oh, yeah, I'll explain later." Amy followed the Doctor as he continued on.    
  
Rory looked at Lilith. "A eunuch?"   
  
She shrugged. "You're not really dressed to be a Viscount. Don't worry, you'll work your way up. Come on, we don't want to lose them."   
  
They caught up to the Doctor and Amy when they stopped to watch a group of girls across the canal. A man ran up to the group and started looking under the girls' veils. One of the girls stepped forward and the man fell to the ground.The girls continued their procession. Another man stepped on his chest, then left with a swirl of his cloak. Two guards lifted the man off the ground.    
  
"What was that about?" Amy wondered. She turned to the Doctor, but he was already gone. "I hate it when he does that!"   
  
"I'll deal with him," Lilith offered. "You two go off and do your human date-y stuff. We'll catch up with you later." She ran after the Doctor who had gone to meet up with the man.    
  
"Who were those girls?" the Doctor asked.    
  
The man stopped. "I thought everyone knew about the Calvierri school."   
  
"Our first day here. Parents do all sorts of things to get their children into good schools. They move house, they change religion." He lowered his voice. "So, why are you trying to get her out?"   
  
The man hesitated. "Something happens in there. Something magical, something evil. My own daughter didn't recognise me. And the girl who pushed me away, her face, like an animal."   
  
The Doctor put his arm around the man's shoulder. "I think it's time we met this Signora Calvierri, don't you think, Lilith?"   
  
The plan was for the man, Guido, to distract the guards while the Doctor and Lilith soniced their way into the building.    
  
The two of them made their way down some stone steps and into a chamber. On one wall, the Doctor spotted a mirror. "Hello, handsome.” He straightened his tie and checked his teeth.    
  
Lilith rolled her eyes. "And you say your last incarnation had vanity issues." She heard a rustling from behind them and turned around slowly. "Dad..."   
  
There stood a group of girls dressed in white. "Who are you?" they asked in unison.    
  
The Doctor turned to face them, then quickly looked back at mirror. They weren't visible. He kept looking back and forth. "How are you doing that? I am loving it. You're like Houdini, only five scary girls, only he was shorter. Will be shorter. I'm rambling."   
  
"I'll ask you again," the girls said as one. "Who are you?"   
  
"Why don't you check this out." He held out a wallet that shows an ID with a photo of his first incarnation. Lilith shook her head. He checked it, and then put it away. "Library card. Of course, I need the spare. Pale, creepy girls who don't like sunlight and can't be seen in..." He glanced back at the mirror. "Lilith, are you thinking what I think I'm thinking? But the city. Why shut down the city? Unless--"   
  
"Dad, danger, shut up," Lilith growled.    
  
"Leave now or we shall call for the steward, if you are lucky." The girls hissed and bared their fangs as they advance on the Doctor and Lilith. They ran to the doorway. "Tell me the whole plan," he ordered. Lilith face palmed. "Listen, we would love to stay here. This whole thing, we're thrilled. Oh, this is Christmas!"   
  
They sprinted up the stairs and out of the school. After running down a few streets, they ran into Amy. "Doctor! Lilith!"   
  
“We just met some vampires!" Lilith said excitedly at the same time Amy exclaimed, "We just saw a vampire!"   
  
They both talked at once, voices overlapping. “Creepy girls, no reflection, and everything!"   
  
"Vampires!"   
  
They jumped up and down together excitedly as Rory joined them. "We think we just saw a vampire," he said.    
  
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, yeah, we know. Amy was just telling us."   
  
"Yeah! The Doctor and Lilith actually went to their house."   
  
Rory shifted, uncomfortably. "Oh. Right. Well."   
  
"Okay, so," the Doctor slapped his hands on Rory's cheeks, "first we need to get back in there somehow."   
  
"What?" the human nearly shouted.    
  
"How do we do that?" Amy asked.    
  
"Come and meet my new friend." The Doctor led them away.

* * *

Guido brought out a map of Venice. The Doctor and Amy were at the table looking it over with him while Lilith paced and Rory sat back among some barrels.   
  
"As you saw, there's no clear way in. The House of Calvierri is like a fortress. But there's a tunnel underneath it, with a ladder and shaft that leads up into the house. I tried to get in once myself, but I hit a trapdoor."   
  
"You need someone on the inside," Amy said.    
  
"No," the Doctor snapped.    
  
"You don't even know what I was going to say!" she protested.    
  
"We pretend you and Lilith are applicants for the school to get you inside and tonight you two come down and open the trapdoor to let us in."   
  
"He got us there, Amy," Lilith admitted.    
  
"Are you insane?" demanded Rory.    
  
Amy crossed her arms. "We don't have another option."   
  
"He said no, Amy. Listen to him."   
  
"There is another option." Guido pointed at the barrels Rory was sitting on. "I work at the Arsenale. We build the warships for the navy."   
  
The Doctor sniffed the barrels. "Gunpowder. Most people just nick stationery from where they work."   
  
Rory slid slowly off the barrel and backed away into a dead rabbit hanging by the fireplace.   
  
"Look," the Doctor continued, "I have a thing about guns and huge quantities of explosive."   
  
Guido scowled. "What do you suggest, then? We wait until they turn her into an animal?"   
  
"I'll be there three, four hours tops," Amy insisted.    
  
The Doctor sat on the bed, head in his hands, and muttered something to himself. Then he took a breath and leaned back. "But I have to know. We go together. Say you're my daughter too."   
  
"What?" Rory exclaimed. "Don't listen to him!"   
  
"Your daughter?" Amy scoffed. "Lilith can barely pass as your daughter. You look about nine."   
  
"Brother?" Lilith suggested.    
  
Amy made a face. "Too weird. My fiancé."   
  
Lilith made an undignified snorting sound trying to hold back a giggle.    
  
"I'm not having him run around telling people he's your fiancé," Rory argued.    
  
Amy thought about it. "No. No, you're right."   
  
"Thank you."   
  
"I mean, they've already seen the Doctor. You should do it."   
  
He blinked. "Me?"   
  
"Yeah! You can be our brother." She ruffled his hair playfully.    
  
Lilith didn't bother holding back a laugh that time. The Doctor smiled at their interaction.   
  
"Why is him being your brother weird, but with me, it's okay?" Rory demanded.    
  
"Actually, I thought you  _ were  _ her fiancé," Guido said to the Doctor.    
  
Lilith snapped and broke into hysterical laughter. The Doctor glared at her. "Yeah, that's not helping."   
  
"This whole thing is mental!" Rory practically shouted. "They're  _ vampires _ , for God's sake!"   
  
"We hope," the Doctor muttered.    
  
Amy frowned. "So if they're not vampires...?"   
  
Lilith bit her lip. "Makes you wonder what could be so bad it doesn't actually mind us thinking it's a vampire."

And that's how Lilith found herself standing in front of Signora Calvierri as a petitioner wearing clothes belonging to Guido's daughter with Amy and Rory. Rory was wearing Guido's clothes and Amy was wearing a simple skirt and blouse.    
  
"So, basically, our parents are dead from getting the plague. I'm a gondola... driver... so... money's a bit tight... so having my sisters go to your school for special people would be brilliant. Cheers." Rory forced a smile.    
  
The man with the cape from earlier, Francesco was his name, showed an interest in Amy and stood in front of her. "Have we met?"   
  
"I've just got one of those faces," Rory said.    
  
"I wasn't talking to you," Francesco snapped.    
  
"She's got the same face, which is because she's my sister!" the human declared, slightly proud of himself.    
  
Signora Calvierri turned to the servant who had brought them in. "Carlo, explain yourself. Why have you brought me this imbecile?"   
  
"Signora, they have references from the King of Sweden," Carlo said in his defense.    
  
"What? Let me see" She held out her hand and Rory walked to throne and handed her the psychic paper. "Well, now I can see what got my steward so excited. What say you, Francesco? Do you like them?"   
  
Francesco, who was circling Amy and Lilith, bared his teeth in a twisted grin. "Oh, I do, Mother. I do."   
  
"Then we would be delighted to accept them. Say goodbye to your sisters."   
  
Rory and Amy gripped each other’s hands just before Carlo led a stuttering Rory away. "A-Amy! Lil--!" Rory shouted with a warning in his voice, but the slamming of the door cut him off.


	16. Fish Vampires

Carlo led Amy and Lilith through the school and upstairs. He took them to a room they would share with some other girls. "There are clothes on the beds. Get changed and wait here."   
  
Amy looked around the lavish, domed room. "Blimey. This is private education, then?"   
  
All the other girls left but one. Lilith and Amy sat on either side of her. "Hey, I'm Lilith. What's your name?"   
  
"Isabella," the girl replied.    
  
"Listen," Amy said, "we're going to get you out of here, but I need you to tell me what's going on. What is this place? What are they doing?"   
  
"They, er... they come at night. They gather around my bed and they take me to a room with this green light and a chair with... with straps, as if for a surgeon."   
  
"What happens in there?" Lilith questioned.    
  
Isabella shrugged. "I wake up here. And the sunlight burns my skin like candle wax."   
  
A bell tolled and Amy and Lilith looked at each other, warily.   
  
Later, dressed in white nightgowns and carrying  lamps, the two made their way downstairs to try and find the room Isabella had mentioned. Lilith heard someone moan and cry. She motioned towards the sources of the sound and Amy nodded. They headed that way. After finding nothing, they went to the well in the center of the courtyard. Amy set down her lamp and released the bar locking the grate. Done, she picks up the lamp, and she and Lilith headed back inside and nearly walks into Carlo. Amy shrieked and dropped the lamp.   
  
The man forced the two girls down the stairs. "Control yourself, children!" He pushed them towards a chamber where the Signora, Francesco and some of the girls were waiting.   
  
"Get your hands off me." Amy spat.    
  
"Psychic paper." Signora Calvierri laughed. "Did you really think that would work on me?" There was a hum of power as the chamber was bathed in a green light. The Signora circled the duo as Carlo held them. "Where are you from? Did you fall through the chasm?"   
  
"Mother this is pointless. Let's just start the process," Francesco insisted.    
  
"Hold your tongue, Francesco! I need to know what this girl is doing in a world of savages with psychic paper. Who are you with? I scarcely believe your idiot brother sent you. What are you doing in my school?"   
  
Two of the girls brought forward a wooden chair with wrist straps. Francesco set a hook into an eye socket above the chair. One of the girls attached an IV bag to the hook.    
  
"OK, I'll tell you," Amy relented. "I'm from Ofsted." Lilith held back a chuckle.    
  
Signora Calvierri laughed. "Put her in the chair. Tie the other one up."   
  
Carlo pushed Amy into the chair and two of the girls fastened the straps as she struggled. The other two used a piece of rope to bind Lilith's hands and gagged her. Francesco held Amy's head from behind.   
  
"No! Get your hands off me!" she shouted. Lilith struggled against the bonds.    
  
"Oh, make sport of me, will you?" the Signora scoffed. "Tease me as if I were your dog? Well, this dog has a bite, girl." She turned to reveal her fangs.    
  
"Doctor!" Amy screamed. Lilith thrashed against the rope holding her to no avail.    
  
Signora Calvierri leaned in and bit Amy's neck.   
  
After a moment, she pulled away, licking her lips. The other girls left. Amy's eyes were glazed, the trauma having been too much for her. Francesco leaned down and ran a finger along her neck by the puncture wounds, then looked from Lilith to the Signora. "Mother, may I drink from the other one? I'm so thirsty."   
  
"Of course, darling." She turned back to Amy. "This is how it works. First, we drink you until you're dry. Then we fill you with our blood. It rages through you like a fire, changing you, until one morning you awake and your humanity is a dream... now faded."   
  
"Or you die," Francesco chuckled as he moved a strand of hair away from Amy's neck. "That can happen."   
  
"And if I survive?" Amy questioned.    
  
"Then there are ten thousand husbands waiting for you in the water," Signora Calvierri replied.    
  
"Yeah, sorry. I'm kind of engaged." Amy kicked the Signora and Francesco restrained her. The Signora was stunned. There was a slight electric hum of technology and she flipped back part of her skirt to reveal a device clipped to her dress. Her image flickered to show an insectoid creature with a fish head, and then her human image returned. They heard running footsteps and voices from above and she and Francesco ran upstairs leaving Amy and Lilith alone. Both struggled to escape.

Isabella came into the room. She untied Lilith and the two undid the straps that held Amy. "She bit me!" Amy exclaimed.    
  
"We'll have time to worry about fixing that once we get to Dad and Rory," Lilith assured her. "For now, we run."   
  
Amy, Lilith, and Isabella dashed out of the room and ran down the halls, following the direction that the Signora and Francesco went. They caught sight of the two aliens talking to the Rory and the Doctor. "Amy!" Rory shouted.    
  
"Rory!" Amy yelled. The girls sprinted to joined the men and they all ran away. "They're not vampires."   
  
The Doctor, who was trying to sonic the door, turned to look at her. "What?"   
  
"We saw them; we saw her," Lilith explained. "They're not vampires, they're Sisters of the Water!"   
  
The Doctor chuckled. "Classic!"   
  
"That's  _ good _ news?" Rory gaped at him. "What is wrong with you people?"   
  
"Look at it this way, Rory," Lilith said. "It's good news for the men. It's Amy and I they want, not you."   
  
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better."   
  
The aliens began to break through the door behind them and the Doctor urged the others forward into a passage. "Come on, move Keep moving! Come on, guys!"   
  
Isabella opened the doorway at the other end of the hall and ushered everyone through, down the stairs to the canal where Guido was waiting. "Quickly. Get out. Quick!" She stopped in the sunlight and put up her hands to block her eyes.   
  
The Doctor ran back to help her. "Come on, run!"   
  
"I can't!" Someone dragged her back inside and slammed the door. The Doctor pounded on the door and spasmed once as the door was electrified. He fell to the ground. Rory, Lilith, and Amy ran to check on him.   
  
"Is he dead?" asked Amy.    
  
"No, he's breathing," Rory said.    
  
Lilith looked back at Guido who looked down at the ground, knowing he would never sees his daughter again.

* * *

The Doctor examined the bites on Amy's neck with the sonic screwdriver. "You're fine." He paced in frustration. "I need to think. Come on brain, think, think. Think!" He sat at the table. "Think!"

  
"If they're fish people, it explains why they hate the sun," Amy said.    
  
The Doctor put his hand over her mouth. "Stop talking, brain thinking. Hush."   
  
"It's the school thing I don't understand," Rory commented.    
  
The Doctor put his other hand over Rory's mouth. "Stop talking, brain thinking. Hush."   
  
"I say we take the fight to them," suggested Guido.    
  
"Ah-ah-ah!" The Doctor nodded at Rory, who placed his hand over Guido's mouth. He turned his gaze to Lilith, who rolled her eyes and put her finger to her lips. "Her planet dies, so they flee through a crack in space and time, and end up here, then she closes off the city and, one by one, changes people into creatures like her to start a new gene pool. Got it. Then what? They come from the sea, they can't survive forever on land, so what's she going to do? Unless she's going to do something to the environment to make the city habitable. She said, 'I shall bend the heavens to save my race.'"   
  
He moved his hands from their mouths to their heads, forcing them to nod. "Bend the heavens... Bend... the heavens... She's going to sink Venice."   
  
"She's going to sink Venice?" Guido repeated.    
  
Lilith nodded. "And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed."   
  
"You can't repopulate somewhere with just women," Rory pointed out. "You need blokes."   
  
"She's got blokes," Amy realized.    
  
"Where?"   
  
"In the canal. She said to me, 'There are ten thousand husbands waiting in the water.'"   
  
"Only the males survived the journey here," Lilith guessed. "She's got thousands of children swimming in the canals, waiting for Mommy to make them some compatible girlfriends." She made a face. "Ew. I mean, really, that's just... _ ew _ ."   
  
There was a loud clattering from the floor above. They all looked up at the ceiling.   
  
"The people upstairs are very noisy," the Doctor said.    
  
Guido frowned. "There aren't any people upstairs."   
  
Lilith sighed. "I had a feeling you were going to say that. Did anyone else know he was going to say that?"   
  
Wood creaked as if someone was walking across the floor. Rory looked up. "Is it the vampires?"   
  
"Fish from space," the Doctor corrected him.    
  
There was a loud thump and breaking glass as the converted girls appeared in the window. The humans stood quickly, startled. The Doctor brandished an ultraviolet light. The girls at the window broke the glass and the Doctor used the light to keep them back. He then used the sonic screwdriver on them, which messed with the perception filters and showed their true forms.    
  
Guido gaped at them. "What's happened to them?"   
  
"There's nothing left of them. They've been fully converted. Blimey, fish from space have never been so... buxom."   
  
"Ew, Dad!"    
  
The Doctor switched off the sonic. "Move. Come on."    
  
They run downstairs, Amy in front and Guido in back. "Give me the lamp." The Doctor gave the lamp to him and he use it on the girls.    
  
The door opened and Amy, Lilith, and Rory ran out, disturbing the chickens. The Doctor followed. "Go, go, go, guys! Keep moving, go, go go!"   
  
Amy stopped to look back, but Lilith grabbed her wrist and pulled her along. "We need to keep moving." She tugged again and Amy started running.    
  
Behind them, the house exploded. The Doctor, Lilith, Amy, and Rory looked at the damage. They could hear the people clamoring in the streets. "Rosanna's initiating the final phase."   
  
"We need to stop her," Amy decided. "Come on!"   
  
The Doctor shook his head. "No, no. Get back to the TARDIS.   
  
"You can't stop her on your own."   
  
"We don't discuss this!" he snapped. "I tell you to do something, Amy, and you do it. Lilith is going with you."   
  
"Like hell I am!" Lilith growled.    
  
"No arguments. You take Amy and Rory back to the TARDIS; protect them at all costs."   
  
Amy and Lilith stormed off, Rory catching up with them a moment later. The three made their way through the streets, both women mumbling about the overprotective alien. They were stopped by Francesco, who stood in their way, wet from the canal.    
  
Rory picked up two candlesticks and held them up in the form of a cross. "Amy, Lilith, run!"    
  
Francesco swiped the candlesticks away and moved towards the two girls who were backing away. Rory tried desperately to pull his attention back. "This way, you freak! Don't! This...this... this way, you big, stupid, great... SpongeBob! The only thing I've seen uglier than you is... your mum!"   
  
The Saturnyn turned to confront Rory. "Did you just say something about Mummy?"   
  
Rory picked up a broom and brandished it like a sword. Francesco pulled out a real sword, clearly making Rory question his bravado. The alien attacked Rory, who blocked with the broom handle.   
  
"Careful! Hit him!" Amy shouted. "This way, bring him this way! Rory!"   
  
Francesco sliced the broom handle, leaving Rory defenseless. Francesco thrust his sword through a hanging drape and Rory dodged out of the way. He then trips and falls backwards onto the ground, hitting his head. Francesco leapt, changing form in midair, and landed on top of Rory.   
  
Lilith pulled out her blaster and ran to the top of the stairs. "Hey! Mommy's boy." She shot Francesco. Amy held up a compact mirror and the alien exploded in the reflected sunlight.    
  
Rory wiped off dust, making a face "Ohhh... Oh..."   
  
"Nice aim, Lilith." Amy helped Rory to his feet. "Why did you make the sign of the cross, you numpty?"   
  
"Oh, oh, right! I'm being reviewed now, am I?"   
  
Amy kissed him passionately. "Now we go help the Doctor."   
  
Rory blinked, a bit dazed. "Rightio."

* * *

The Doctor entered the throne room from the main door as Amy, Rory, and Lilith entered from the side. The Doctor frowned when he saw them. “Get out! I need to stabilise the storm.” He ran to the throne.

“We're not leaving you,” Rory argued.

“Right, so one minute it's, ‘You make people a danger to themselves,’ the next it's, ‘We're not leaving you!’ But if one of you gets squashed or blown up or eaten, who gets…” He was cut off by the ground shaking and some of the ceiling falling down. They all fell to the ground.

“What the hell was that?” Lilith wondered, getting back to her feet.

“Nothing,” the Doctor said. “Bit of an earthquake.”

“An earthquake?” Amy repeated.

“Manipulate the elements, it can trigger earthquakes. But don't worry about them.”

Rory frowned. “No?”

LIlith swore in Gallifreyan. “No, we have to worry about the tidal waves caused by the earthquake.”

“Exactly.” The Doctor turned back to the throne. “Right, Rosanna's throne is the control hub but she's locked the program, so tear out every single wire and circuit in the throne. Go crazy. Hit it with a stick, anything. We need it to shut down and re-route control to the secondary hub, which I'm guessing will also be the generator.”

“You go look for that,” Lilith suggested. “We’ll work on destroying the wiring here.”

The Doctor sprinted out of the throne room while the other three continued their work. The wires sparked as they pulled them. “That should be good,” the Time Lady said eventually. “Now let’s go make sure my dad doesn’t accidentally kill himself.”

They ran out into the courtyard, all three looking around frantically. “There he is!” Rory shouted, pointing to what was, in fact, the Doctor scaling the side of the bell tower.

Lilith swore loudly in Gallifreyan. “That moron!” She watched her father study the machinery anxiously while Amy and Rory cheered him on.

Suddenly, the rain stopped and the sky cleared. Lilith breathed a sigh of relief. The Doctor disappeared from the top of the bell tower. ‘ _ Where are you going? _ ’

‘ _ Have to help Rosana, _ ’ was his hasty reply.

“Come on,” Lilith said to the companions. “We’ll meet him back at the TARDIS.”

The Doctor was waiting for them there, trying to hide a somber look, but not fooling the Time Lady. “Now, then, what about you two, eh? Next stop Leadworth Register Office?”

“It's fine,” Rory said dejectedly. “Drop me back where you found me. I'll just say you've--”

“Stay,” Amy cut him off, “with us. Please. Just for a bit. I want you to stay.”

“Fine with me,” the Doctor allowed.

“It’ll be fun,” Lilith agreed.

Rory grinned. “Yeah? Yes, I would like that.”

“Nice one.” Amy pushed open the TARDIS doors and looked over her shoulder at Lilith. “Hey, Lilith, look at this. Got our spaceship, got our boys. Our work here is done.” She disappeared into the box.

Rory scoffed. “We are not their boys.”

Lilith chuckled and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, you are.” She followed Amy into the TARDIS, only catching Rory’s response to the Doctor’s question.

“What? All I can hear is silence.”


	17. Singing Birds

The TARDIS landed in the middle of a flower bed. The door opened and the Doctor popped his head out to see where they were. He stepped out, knocking a stone from the small retaining wall, and Lilith followed.

She spotted Rory in the doorway of the nearby house. “Rory!”

“Lilith. Doctor.” Rory came out to greet them.

“We've crushed your flowers,” the Doctor noted.

Rory eyed the smashed plants. “Oh, Amy will kill you.”

“Where is she?” Lilith wondered.

“She'll need a bit longer.”

“Whenever you're ready, Amy!” the Doctor called. Amy came out of the cottage, very pregnant. “Oh, hey! Hey. You've swallowed a planet.”

“I'm pregnant,” Amy corrected him.

“You're huge!”

Amy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I'm pregnant.”

Lilith grinned at Amy, then punched Rory lightly in the arm. “Congrats, you two.”

“Oh, look at you both. Five years later and you haven't changed a bit.” The Doctor hugged Amy. “Apart from age and size.”

She laughed. “Good to see you, Doctor.”

He looked down at her stomach, then up at her. “Are you pregnant?”

Lilith chuckled. Amy shook her head and went back inside. The Doctor, clapped Rory on the shoulder before they and Lilith followed. Later, the four of them were walking down a village lane.

“Ah, Leadworth. Vibrant as ever.”

“It's Upper Leadworth, actually,” Rory said. “We've gone slightly upmarket.”

“Where is everyone?” Lilith wondered. 

“This is busy,” Amy told her. “Okay, it's quiet, but it's really restful and healthy. Loads of people here live well into their nineties.”

The four of them sat on a bench in a cul-du-sac. “So what brings you two here?” Rory asked. 

The Doctor shifted in his seat. “I wanted to see how you were. I don't just abandon people when they leave the TARDIS. This Time Lord's for life. You don't get rid of the Doctor so easily.”

Amy raised an eyebrow. “Lilith made you come here, didn't she?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, “shouted at me, really. But look, what a result. Look at this...bench. What a nice bench. What will they think of next?”

The quartet of them sat there, bored and with nothing to say. Lilith was the one to break the silence. “So, what do you do around here to stave off the, you know…”

“Boredom?” Amy finished. 

“Self harm,” muttered the Doctor. 

Rory shrugged. “We relax. We live, we listen to the birds. We didn't get time to listen to birdsong back in the TARDIS days.”

The birdsong got louder.

“Oh, blimey. My head's a bit, ooh…” The Doctor held his head in his hand then sat back up. “No, you're right, there wasn't a lot of time for birdsong back in the good…” his voice began to fade as Lilith started to drift off. “old... days...”

The four fell asleep on the bench.

* * *

Lilith blinked awake. She sat up and looked around in confusion. She seem to have fallen asleep on the floor or the console room. She jumped and looked to her right when she heard the Doctor groan. He was on the floor next to her. 

“Dad? What?” she mumbled, confused. 

“What? No, yes, sorry, what?” The Doctor jumped to his feet as Amy and Rory came into the room. “Oh, you're okay. Oh, thank God. I had a terrible nightmare about you two. That was scary. Don't ask, you don't want to know. You're safe now.” He hugged Amy. 

Amy hugged him back awkwardly. “Oh, okay.”

“That's what counts. Blimey, never dropped off like that before. Well, never, really. I'm getting on a bit, you see. Don't let the cool gear fool you. Now, what's wrong with the console?” The Doctor examined the console. “Red flashing lights... I bet they mean something.”

“Doctor, I also had a kind of dream thing,” said Rory. 

Amy nodded. “Yeah, so did I.”

“Not a nightmare, though, just…” he turned to Amy. “We were married.”

“Yeah, in a little village.”

The Doctor looked at them, surprised, then shot a look at Lilith, who seemed shocked and slightly worried. 

“A sweet little village, and you were pregnant.” The human male added. 

“Yeah, I was huge,” Amy agreed. “I was a boat.”

“So you had the same dream, then? Exactly the same dream?”

She crossed her arms. “Are you calling me a boat?”

Rory elected not to answer. He turned to the Doctor. “And Doctor, you and Lilith were visiting.”

“Yeah, yeah, you came to our cottage,” Amy recalled. 

“How can we have the same dream? It doesn't make sense.”

Lilith stepped up. “Um, not to alarm or anything, but I had the same dream.  _ Exactly  _ the same.”

“And you had a nightmare about us,” Amy pointed out to the Doctor. “What happened to us in the nightmare?”

The Doctor busied himself studying the console. “It was similar, in some aspects.”

“Which aspects?” Rory questioned. 

“Well, all of them,” he admitted. 

“You said it was a nightmare,” the other man accused. 

“Did I say nightmare? No. More of a really good...mare,” the Doctor floundered. Lilith snickered. “Look, it doesn't matter. We all had some kind of psychic episode. We probably jumped a time track. Forget it, we're back to reality now.”

Lilith frowned as she heard birds chirping. “Dad, if we're back to reality how come I can still hear birds?”

Rory looked around. “Yeah, the same birds. The same ones we heard in the…”

* * *

Lilith blinked awake. She was on the bench back in Upper Leadworth, her head on Amy’s shoulder. 

“…dream,” Rory finished, then shook his head. “Oh. Sorry. Nodded off, stupid. God, I must be overdoing it. I was dreaming we were back on the TARDIS.” The Doctor jumped to his feet and Rory looked at Amy. “You had the same dream, didn't you?”

Amy nodded. “Back in the TARDIS. Weren't we just saying the same thing?”

“But we thought this was the dream,” Lilith added. 

The Doctor picked up a small stone from the path, examined it, and then threw it back to the ground.

Amy stood. “I think so. Why do dreams fade so quickly?”

“Doctor, what is going on?” Rory asked. 

“Is this because of you?” The pregnant ginger crossed her arms. “Is this some Time Lord thing because you've shown up again?”

“Listen to me,” the Doctor said, seriously. “Trust nothing. From now on, trust nothing you see, hear or feel.”

“But we're awake now,” protested Rory. 

“You thought you were awake on the TARDIS too,” the Doctor pointed out. 

Amy looked around. “But we're home.”

“Yeah. You're home. You're also dreaming. Trouble is, Rory, Lilith, Amy, which is which? Are we flashing forwards… or backwards? Hold on tight. This is going be a tricky one.”

* * *

Lilith pushed herself to her feet from where she had collapsed on the floor. Amy woke in one of the chairs with a gasp. The Doctor gripped a lever on the console to move it. “This is bad. I don't like this.” He kicked the console in anger.

Lilith snorted, immediately reminded of when they had first crash landed in Pete’s World. “Did that help?”

“Yes,” the Doctor snipped. 

“Did it hurt?”

“Yes. Ow.”

“Shall I run and get the manual?” Amy offered. 

The Time Lady crossed her arms. “Don’t bother. He threw it in a supernova.”

Amy frowned. “He threw the manual in a supernova? Why?”

“Because I disagreed with it. Stop talking when I'm cross.” The Doctor wagged his finger at her. 

“Okay, but whatever's wrong with the TARDIS, is that what caused us to dream about the future?” Rory asked. 

“If we were dreaming of the future…” the Doctor muttered as he headed back upstairs. 

“Of course we were,” Amy reasoned. “We were in Leadworth.”

“Thing is, we could still be in Upper Leadworth, dreaming of this,” Lilith told her. “We don’t know what’s real and what’s not.”

“No, okay, no, this is real. I'm definitely awake now.”

“And you thought you were awake when you were all elephanty,” the Doctor reminded her. 

“Hey,” Amy protested, “pregnant.”

“And you could be giving birth right now. This could be the dream. I told you, trust nothing we see or hear or feel. Look around you. Examine everything. Look for all the details that don't ring true.”

Rory rolled his eyes. “Okay, we're in a spaceship that's bigger on the inside than the outside.”

“With a bow tie-wearing alien and his blaster-toting daughter,” Amy added. 

“So maybe ‘what rings true’ isn't so simple.”

Lilith sighed. “They’ve got a point.”

The TARDIS powered down, leaving them in virtual darkness, the only light coming from the console. The birdsong returned. As the TARDIS became darker, Rory went to Amy and took her in his arms.

“Remember-- this is real, but when we wake up in the other place, remember how real this feels,” the Doctor said. 

Amy nodded. “It is real. I know it's real.”

* * *

The Doctor was standing in the middle of the street as a group of schoolchildren passed by. Lilith, Amy, and Rory woke up on the bench outside the library.

“Okay. This is the real one, definitely this one.” Amy rubbed her stomach. “It's all solid.”

“It felt solid in the TARDIS too. You can't spot a dream while you're having it.” The Doctor waved his fingers in front of his face. 

“What are you doing?” Rory asked. 

“Looking for motion blur, pixilation,” the Doctor answered. “It could be a computer simulation. I don't think so, though.”

A woman walked by. “Hello, Doctor,” she greeted. 

“Hi,” said the Doctor. 

“Hello,” said Rory. 

The Doctor frowned at Rory. “You're a doctor.”

“Yeah. And unlike you, I've actually passed some exams,” Rory snarked. Lilith snickered. 

“A doctor,” the Time Lord repeated, “not a nurse. Just like you've always dreamed. How interesting.” He wandered away. 

Rory followed him. “What is?

“You’ve got your dream wife, your dream job, and probably your dream baby,” Lilith explained. “Maybe this is your dream.”

“It's Amy's dream too. Isn't it, Amy?” He looked at his wife. 

“Yes,” Amy said, unconvincingly. “Course it is, yeah.”

The Doctor jabbed his thumb at a building behind him. “What's that?”

“Old people's home,” she told him. 

“You said everyone here lives to their 90s,” he mused. “There's something here that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick.”

The Doctor ran off and Rory followed, groaning. “Oh. Can we not do the running thing?” Amy complained. 

Lilith scoffed. “Men.” She offered Amy her arm. “Shall we chase after them at our own speed?”

* * *

All of the elderly residents were relaxing in the same room, one was knitting. 

“Oh, hello, Dr. Williams,” said one of residents. 

The knitting woman looked up from her needles. “Hello, Rory, love.”

Rory smiled at her. “Hello, Mrs. Poggit. How's your hip?”

“A bit stiff,” Mrs. Poggit admitted. 

“Oh, easy, D-96 compound, plus…” The Doctor trailed off when Lilith sent him a warning look. “No, you don't have that yet, forget that.”

“Who's your friend?” the woman asked. “A junior doctor?”

Lilith snorted when Rory answered affirmatively. 

“Can I borrow you? You're the size of my grandson.”

The Doctor kneeled as Mrs. Poggit put a sweater over his head. “Slightly keen to move on. Freak psychic schism to sort out.” He frowned, leaning forward and forcing Mrs. Poggit to lean back. “You're incredibly old, aren't you?”

“Dad!” Lilith scolded.

The residents looked on as birdsong began again and the Doctor, Lilith, Amy, and Rory fell to the floor, asleep.

* * *

The four of them woke leaning against the console. “Okay, I hate this,” Amy declared. “Doctor. stop it, because this is definitely real, it's definitely this one. I keep saying that, don't I?”

“It's bloody cold,” Rory complained.

“The heating's off,” the Doctor explained.

The human frowned. “The heating's off?”

“Yeah. Put on a jumper. That's what I always do.”

“Yes, sorry about Mrs Poggit. She's so lovely though.”

“Oh, I wouldn't believe her nice old lady act if I were you.”

“What do you mean, ‘act’?” Amy asked. 

The Doctor elected not to answer and joined Lilith in studying the monitors. “What have we got?”

“Everything's off,” she told him. “The sensors, the core power. We're drifting. And the scanner's down so we can't even see outside. We could literally be anywhere. Someone, something, is overriding the controls.”

A man appeared at the top of the steps. He was short, what little hair he had was red, and was a little on the heavy side. He was dressed similarly to the Doctor in a tweed jacket, striped shirt and bow tie.

“Well, that took awhile,” he said, walking down the steps. “Honestly, I'd heard such good things. Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm. Him in the bow tie.”

Lilith flinched at the last sentence. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her, just she shook her head in response. 

Him in the bow tie was her Gran’s favorite way of referring to the Eleventh Doctor. 

“How did you get into my TARDIS? What are you?” The Doctor demanded. 

“What shall we call me? Well, if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord.”

“Nice look,” the Doctor complimented. 

The Dream Lord looked down at himself. “This? No, I'm not convinced. Bow ties?”

The Doctor took a spoon from his pocket and threw it at the Dream Lord. The spoon passed right through him. “Interesting.”

“I'd love to be impressed, but Dream Lord-- it's in the name, isn't it? Spooky, not quite there.” The Dream Lord disappeared and reappeared behind them. “And yet, very much here.”

“I'll do the talking, thank you,” the Doctor snapped. “Amy, want to take a guess at what that is?”

Amy looked at the intruder. “Um. Dream Lord. He creates dreams.”

“Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks,” Lilith added. 

“And what about the gooseberry here, does he get a guess?” the Dream Lord asked, gesturing towards Rory. 

Lilith frowned. “Gooseberry?”

“Listen, mate,” Rory said, “if anyone's the gooseberry around here, it's the Doctor.”

The Dream Lord snorted. “There's a delusion I'm not responsible for.”

“No, he is. Isn't he, Amy?”

“Oh, Amy, have to sort your men out. Choose, even,” the stranger sneered. 

“I have chosen. Of course I've chosen.” Lilith could feel the worry radiating off of Rory and rolled her eyes. Without taking her eyes from Dream Lord, Amy smacked Rory on the chest. “It's you, stupid.”

“Oh, good, thanks.”

“You can't fool me. I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice, Amy. Blimey, I'd blush if I had a blood supply or a real face.”

Lilith raised an eyebrow at the other ginger. “Damn, Amy.”

“Shut up, Lillith.”

“Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?” The Doctor snarked. 

“Me? Oh, you're on shaky ground.”

“Am I?”

“If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a Tawdry Quirk Shop. The madcap vehicle, the cockamamie hair, the clothes designed by a first-year fashion student... I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are.” The Dream Lord paused. “Where was I?”

“You were…” Rory began. 

The Dream Lord cut him off, moving back to the upper level. “I know where I was. So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here in the time machine, and there in the village that time forgot. One is real, the other's fake. And just to make it more interesting you're going to face in both worlds a deadly danger. But only one of the dangers is real. Tweet, tweet. Time to sleep.  Oh, or are you waking up?”

The four fall back to the floor, asleep.

* * *

They woke up in the empty lounge. Lilith frowned, something was off, but she couldn't put her finger on what. The Dream Lord came in dressed in a suit and holding an X-Ray. “Oh, this is bad. This is very, very bad. Look at this X-ray. Your brain is completely see-through. But then, I've always been able to see through you, Doctor.”

“Always? What do you mean, always?” Amy questioned. 

He ignored her. “Now then, the prognosis is this. If you die in the dream you wake up in reality. Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality?”

“What happens?” Rory complied. 

“You die, stupid. That's why it's called reality.”

“Have you met the Doctor before?” Amy demanded. “Do you know him? Doctor, does he?”

The Dream Lord laughed. “Now don't get jealous. He's been around, our boy. Never mind that. You've got a world to choose. One reality was always too much for you, Doctor. Take two and call me in the morning.” And with that, he disappeared. 

Lilith crossed her arms. “Okay, I don't like him,” she decided. “Who agrees that he’s a prick?”

“Who is he?” Amy asked the Doctor. 

“I don't know,” he admitted. “It's a big universe.”

“Why is he doing this?”

“Maybe because he has no physical form. That gets you down after a while, so he's taking it out on folk like us who can touch and eat and feel.” The Doctor struggled to remove the sweater. 

“What does he mean, deadly danger?” Rory wondered. “Nothing deadly has happened here. A bit of natural wastage, obviously.”

Lilith looked around the room, finally putting her ding on what was unsettling her. “Um, question? Where’re all the old people?”

The Doctor ran out of the building and the others followed. Outside, children were out in the playground next to the local ruins. A teacher is with them. 

Rory looked around. “Why would they leave?”

“And what did you mean about Mrs Poggit's act?” Amy asked, referring to what the Doctor had said back in the TARDIS. 

“One of my tawdry quirks: sniffing out things that aren't what they seem. So come on, let's think. The mechanics of this split we're stuck in... Time asleep matches time in our dream world, unlike in conventional dreams.”

“And we're dreaming the same dream at the same time,” Rory added. 

The Doctor nodded. “Yes, sort of communal trance, very rare, very complicated. I'm sure there's a dream giveaway. But my mind isn't working because this village is so dull! I'm slowing down, like you two have.”

Suddenly, Amy doubled over, grabbing her stomach. “Oh. Ow. Really. Ow! It's coming!”

The Doctor immediately freaked out and turned to Rory. “Help her, you're a doctor.”

“You're a doctor!”

“Right.” The Doctor turned to Amy. “It's okay, we're doctors.” He squatted down as if to catch the baby as it would fall out. “What do we do?”

Amy stopped panicking. “Okay, it's not coming.”

Lilith raised an eyebrow. The Doctor stood. “What?”

“This is my life now and it just turned you white as a sheet. So don't you call it dull again, ever. Okay?”

“Sorry,” he apologized. 

“Yeah.” Amy walked over to the park and sat on one of the swings. The Doctor took the other before Rory could get the chance and Lilith leaned against one of the poles, shaking her head. 

“Now, we all know there's an elephant in the room,” the Doctor began. 

“I have to be this size,” Amy protested. “I'm having a baby.”

“No, no. The hormones seem real, but no. Is nobody going to mention Rory's ponytail?” He slowly smiled _. “ _ Lilith, you hold him down, I'll cut it off.”

Amy chuckled.

“This from the man in the bow tie,” Rory snorted. 

“Bow ties are cool,” the Doctor insisted as he stood. 

Lilith noticed Mrs. Poggit watching the children. ‘ _ Dad. _ ’ She nodded towards the old woman. 

“I don't know about you,” the Doctor said, “but I wouldn't hire Mrs Poggit as a babysitter. What's she doing? What does she want?”

The birdsong started up again.

“Oh, no,” Amy groaned. “Here we go.”


	18. Lethal Situations

The Doctor and Lilith jumped to their feet and dashes to the console. Amy and Rory joined them.

“It's really cold,” Amy said, rubbing her arms. “Have you got any warm clothing?”

“What does it matter if we're cold? We have to know what she is up to!” The Doctor shouted. Lilith punched his arm. “Sorry. Sorry. There should be some stuff down there, have a look.”

Amy headed to look and, with a defiant zip of his hoodie, Rory followed. The Doctor ducks into the space under the console, setting an enamel mug on a box with a crank. The crank fell off so the Doctor hit it. He dumped the contents of the box on the glass floor at Lilith’s feet and headed back up. 

“Homemade generator?” she guessed. 

“Help me make it.”

They had one cobbled together by the time the companions made it back to the console. The Doctor handed it to Rory. “Ah, Rory, wind.” He handed Amy the attached wire. “Amy, could you attach this to the monitor, please.”

“I was promised amazing worlds. Instead I get duff central heating and a weird, kitchen wind-up device,” Rory snarked. 

“It's a generator,” Lilith explained. “Just wind it.”

“It's not enough,” Amy reported. 

“Rory, wind.”

“Why is the Dream Lord picking on you?” Rory asked. “Why us?”

The monitor screen beeped to life, showing a starscape. “Where are we?” Amy questioned. 

Lilith’s eyes widened. “We're in trouble. Big trouble. Major trouble.”

“What is that?”

“A star. A cold star,” the Doctor answered, running to the doors to open them and letting in a blinding light. “That's why we're freezing. It's not a malfunction. We're drifting towards a cold sun. That's our danger for this version of reality.” He closed doors and looked at the larger monitor on the wall. 

“This must be the dream,” Amy reasoned. “There is no such thing as a cold star. Stars burn.”

“So's this one. It's just burning cold.”

“Is that possible?” Rory wondered. 

“I can't know everything. Why does everybody expect me to, always?” The Doctor flopped onto the jump seat. 

“Okay, this is something you haven't seen before. So does that mean this is the dream?”

“I don't know, but there it is, and I'd say we've got,” the Doctor checked his watch, “about fourteen minutes until we crash into it. But that's not a problem.”

“Because you know how to get us out of this?” Rory guessed. 

Lilith shook her head. “More likely because we'll have frozen to death by that point.”

Amy looked slightly worried. “Then what'll we do?”

“Stay calm,” the Doctor ordered. “Don't get sucked into it, because this just might be the battle we have to lose.”

“Oh, this is so you, isn't it?” Rory sneered. 

“Hey,” Lilith snapped. “Can it, Gooseberry.”

“A weird new star, fourteen minutes left to live, and only one man to save the day. I just wanted a nice village and a family.”

The Dream Lord appeared behind the Doctor. “Oh, dear, Doctor. Dissent in the ranks. There was an old Doctor from Gallifrey, Who ended up throwing his life away, He let down his friends and…” Thankfully, he stopped the limerick at the sound of birdsong. “Oh, no, we've run out of time. Don't spend too long there, or you'll catch your death here.”

* * *

The Doctor rushed up the steps into the ruins.

Amy looked around, the area was empty aside from small piles of dirt and cloth.  “Where have the children gone?” 

“Don't know. Play time's probably over,” Rory said. 

Lilith nudged the Doctor and pointed to the piles of dust. “Dad.”

He scanned a few piles with the sonic, letting some dust fall through his fingers. “Play time's definitely over.”

Amy put her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God.”

Rory put his arm around her. “What happened to them?”

Lilith looked into the village to see the elderly walking along the path. “My guess? They did.”

“They're just old people,” Amy argued. 

“No. They're very old people. The Doctor headed down the steps. “Sorry, Rory, I don't think you're what's been keeping them alive.”

The elderly lined up along the path facing the park. The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and Lilith were heading towards them when the Dream Lord appeared.

“Hello, peasants. What's this, attack of the old people? Oh, that's ridiculous. This has got to be the dream, hasn't it? What do you think, Amy? Let's all jump under a bus and wake up in the TARDIS.”

Lilith put herself between him and Amy. “Leave her alone!”

“Do that again. I love it when you do that. Trying to be an impressive hero, like your daddy. ‘Leave her alone’,” the Dream Lord mocked. 

“Just leave her!” Rory insisted. 

“Yes, you're not quite so impressive. But I know where your heart lies, don't I, Amy Pond?”

“Shut up!” Amy shouted. “Just shut up and leave me alone.”

“But listen, you're in there. Loves a redhead, the Doctor! Has he told you about Elizabeth the First? Well, she thought she was the first. Lilith’s more into the blondes. Not that she ever get’s very far as they tend to  _ die _ .”

“Shut your mouth, you nasty piece of--” Lilith finished the swear in Gallifreyan, pointing her blaster at the Dream Lord. 

“Look at you,” he sneered. “Lilithanadir, defender of the weak, fighting the world with her blaster. You’re nothing more than a hired gun.”

“Drop it. Drop all of it,” the Doctor said. “I know who you are.”

“Course you don't,” the Dream Lord scoffed. 

“Course I do. No idea how you can be here, but no one else in the universe hates us as much as you do.”

‘ _ Is he like some twisted version of the Valeyard? _ ’ Lilith asked the Doctor telepathically. 

‘ _ Sort of. I don't know how yet, but he's a manifestation of the both of us. _ ’

“Never mind me! Maybe you  _ should _ worry about them.” The Dream Lord motioned to the elderly as they began advancing. 

“Hi,” Rory said to the old people. 

“Hello. We were wondering where you went,” the Doctor said. “To get reinforcements! Are you alright? You look a bit tense.”

“Hello, Mr. Nainby!” Rory said to one of the old men. 

“Rory…” Lilith warned. 

“Mr. Nainby ran the sweet shop. He used to slip me the odd free toffee.” Mr. Nainby lifted him by the collar. “Did I not say thank you?” He threw Rory backwards into the mud. “How did he do that?”

“I suspect he's not himself. Don't get comfortable here,” the Doctor warned. “You may have to run. Fast.”

Amy looked worries. “Can't we just talk to them?”

The elderly people opened their mouths to reveal an eye on each of them. 

“There is an eye in her mouth!”

“There's a whole creature inside her. Inside all of them. They've been there for years, living and waiting,” the Doctor explained. 

Lilith made a face. “That’s freaking disgusting. They're not going to be peeping out of anywhere else, are they?”

Mrs. Poggit leaned forward and shot a green mist out of her mouth. Lilith pulled Rory back to safety. The Doctor put himself in front of the three.

“RUN!” he shouted at the Ponds and they took off. “Lilith, go. Protect them.” 

Lilith raced after the humans, somewhat reluctantly. She caught up with them at the cottage on time to see Rory whack an old lady with a plank of wood. When it does little to stop her advancing, Lilith shoots her with her blaster. “Into the house!” She shouted, dragging Amy the rest of the way inside. 

Amy collapses on the stairs while Rory bolted the door and Lilith ran into the living room. 

“We just ran away,” Amy said. “We just abandoned the Doctor. Don't ever call me Chubs again. We don't see him or Lilith for years, and somehow we don't really connect any more and then, then he takes the bullet for us.”

Lilith brought the coffee table into the front hall to barricade the door. “Dad’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“Lilith is right,” Roey agreed. “You know the Doctor, he's Mr. Cool.”

The birdsong began once again and the trio fell asleep.

* * *

The Doctor and Lilith woke up on the TARDIS floor, Amy and Rory on either side.

Amy clutched the blanket closer around her. “Ah, it's colder.”

“The four of us have to agree, now, which is the dream,” the Doctor declare, buttoning his jacket. 

“It's this, here,” Rory insisted. 

“He could be right,” Amy agreed. “The science is all wrong here, burning ice?”

“No, no, no ice can burn, sofas can read, it's a big universe,” the Doctor snapped. “We have to agree which battle to lose. All of us, now.”

“Okay, which world do you think is real?”

“This one.”

“No, the other one!” Rory argued. 

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but are you disagreeing or competing?”

Amy frowned. “Competing over what?”

The three others stared and her and she groaned as she got up.

The Doctor checked his watch. “Nine minutes till impact.”

“Any guesses on the temperature?” Lilith asked him. 

“Outside? Brrrr. How many noughts have you got? Inside? I don't know but I can't feel my feet and... other parts.”

“I think all my parts are basically fine,” Rory said pointedly.

“HEY!” Lilith shouted, getting everyone’s attention. “I get that with men it’s all about whose is bigger, but can we stop playing the ‘Who Deserves Amy More’ game and start playing the ‘Let’s Figure Out How To Survive’ one?”

“Can't we call for help?” Rory suggested, holding out the phone.

The doctor took it. “Yeah, the universe is really small. There’s bound to be someone nearby!” He tapped Rory on the head with it before hanging it up.

“Put these on, all three of you.” Amy threw blankets with holes cut out at the Doctor and Lilith and slipped another over Rory’s head.

Rory looked down at himself. “Oh, a poncho. The biggest crime against fashion since lederhosen.”

Lilith picked at the blanket. “Seriously.”

Amy put hers on. “Here we go, Lilith! Our poncho boys. If we're going to die, let's die looking like a Peruvian folk band.”

The frozen star loomed closer in the monitor.

“We're not going to die,” Rory said.

“No, we're not,” the Doctor agreed, checking his watch again, “but our time's running out. If we fall asleep here, we're in trouble. If we could divide up, then we'd have an active presence in each world, but the Dream Lord is switching us between the worlds. Why, why, what's the logic?”

The Dream Lord appeared in a poncho and paces alongside the Doctor _ ) _ Good idea, veggie, let's divide you four up, so I can have a little chat with our lovely companion. Maybe I'll keep her, and you can have Pointy Nose and Trigger Happy to yourself for all eternity, should you manage to clamber aboard some sort of reality.”

The birdsong started again.

“Can you hear that?” Rory asked

Amy frowned. “What? No.”

Lilith struggled to keep her eyes open. “Amy, don't be scared, we'll be back.”

The Doctor, Lilith, and Rory fell asleep on the floor.

* * *

Rory and Lilith woke up on the stairs next to a still-sleeping Amy. There was crashing glass as the old people broke the window in an attempt to get inside. 

“Come on,” Rory said. “Let’s get her to the nursery upstairs.”

Rory lifted Amy under the shoulders and Lilith grabbed her ankles. They carried her up the stairs just as the pensioners made it through the window. They brought Amy to the center of the nursery and set her down. Rory closed the door. Lilith looked out the window to see the elderly residents working together to get in, some were even trying to get into the TARDIS. 

“Not as many as before,” she noted. “Some are probably going after Dad.”  She propped a chair under the doorknob then sat on it, while Rory sat on the floor with Amy’s head in his lap until she woke too.

“How did I get up here?” she asked.

“We carried you,” he answered.

Amy looked around. “Where's the Doctor?”

“I don't know. I want to do something for you.” Rory turned around, unzipped a bag and took out a pair of scissors. He then reached back and cut off his ponytail.

Amy gasped. “I was starting to like it.”

There was a squeaking sound and they all looked to the window in alarm only to see the Doctor climbing in. “It's all right, I had to stop off at the butcher's.”

“What are we going to do?” Rory questioned.

“I don't know. I thought the freezing TARDIS was real but now I'm not so sure.”

Amy inhaled, sharply. “I think the baby's starting.”

Rory looked at her wide-eyed. “Honestly?”

“Would I make it up at a time like this?” she snapped.

“Well, you do have a history of…” he was cut off by her glare, “being very lovely. Why are they so desperate to kill us?”

The Doctor stood. “They're scared. Fear generates savagery.”

A piece of garden statuary was thrown through the window. Rory went to look and Mrs. Poggit appeared in the window. Lilith jumped up to pull him out of the way, but Mrs. Poggit shot the green mist at them and they both fell back. Amy went to comfort Rory. The Doctor knocked Mrs. Poggit from the roof with a lamp, the immediately dropped at Lilith’s side. 

She looked up at him. “Will I regenerate?” the Time Lady asked. 

“I don't know,” the Doctor admitted. “I don't think so.”

“I'm sorry.”

The Doctor wiped his eyes.

“Look after our baby,” Rory managed before dissolving. 

Amy sniffed and turned to the dying Gallifreyan. “Lilith?”

“Sorry,” she whispered, and Lilith dissolved too.

* * *

A thick layer of ice covered everything in the TARDIS, including the four bodies. Lilith opened her eyes and saw Rory open his.

“Never doing that again,” she groaned. 

“What- what happened?” he managed. 

“Not sure. Try to get closer to Amy. Share what little body heat you've got left,” Lilith instructed, slowly inching closer to the Doctor. 

After a minute or two, the Doctor opened his eyes and Amy slowly reached her hand out to Rory.

The Dream Lord appeared. “So...you chose this world. Well done. You got it right. And with only seconds left. Fair's fair. Let's warm you up.” He restored the power. “I hope you've enjoyed your little fictions. It all came out of your imagination, so I'll leave you to ponder on that. I have been defeated. I shall withdraw. Farewell.”

The Doctor rose slowly to his feet and started to work the controls.  _ ‘Lilith, help me. _ ’

‘ _ This world, it’s fake too, isn’t it? _ ’

‘ _ Come on. _ ’

Amy and Rory were talking to each other, but Lilith wasn't paying full attention until Amy grabbed her arm. “What are we doing now?”

“Us, we're going to blow up the TARDIS,” the Doctor said. 

“What?”

“Notice how helpful the Dream Lord was? Okay, there was misinformation, red herrings, malice, and I could have done without the limerick, but he was always very keen to make us choose between dream and reality.” The Doctor laughed. 

“What are you doing?” Amy demanded. 

Rory tried to pull the Doctor away from the console. “Doctor! The Dream Lord conceded. This isn't the dream!”

“Yes, it is!” the Doctor shouted. “Star burning cold. Do me a favour! The Dream Lord has no power over the real world. He was offering us a choice between two dreams.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because we know who he is,” Lilith told them. 

And with that, the TARDIS exploded.

* * *

The Doctor was leaning against the console, he and Lilith looking at the psychic pollen in his hand. Amy and Rory come down the steps.

The Doctor looked up. “Any questions?”

“What's that?” the ginger human asked. 

He showed her the six shiny bits of pollen. “A speck of psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass don Slava. Must have been hanging around for ages. Fell in the time rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us.” He went over to the door and blew them into space. 

“So that was the Dream Lord then?” Rory guessed. “Those little specks?”

Lilith raised an eyebrow. “No, wasn't it obvious? The Dream Lord was Dad and I. Psychic pollen is a mind parasite. It feeds on everything dark in you. It gives it a voice and turns it against you. Dad’s nine hundred and seven, I’m almost two hundred  _ and _ I’m temporally misplaced. It had a lot to go on.”

“But why didn't it feed on us, too?” Amy wondered. 

The Doctor scoffed. “Darkness in you pair? It would've starved to death in an instant. We choose our friends with great care. Otherwise we’re stuck with our own company, and you know how that works out.”

Amy looked at the two of them seriously. “But those things he said about you two. You don't think any of that's true?”

“Amy, right now a question is about to occur to Rory.” The Doctor spun her by the shoulders to face Rory. And seeing as the answer is about to change his life, I think you should give him your full attention.” 

Rory frowned. “Yeah. Actually, yeah. ‘Cause what I don't get is they blew up the TARDIS, that stopped that dream, but what stopped the Leadworth dream?”

Amy shifted uncomfortably. “We crashed the camper van.”

“Oh, right.” He paused. “I don't remember that bit.”

“No, you weren't there. You and Lilith were already…”

“Already what?”

“Dead. You died in that dream. Mrs Poggit got you.”

Rory furrowed his eyebrows. “Okay. But how did you know it was a dream? Before you crashed the van, how did you know you wouldn't just die?”

“I didn't,” Amy admitted. 

“Oh.” His eyes went wide in realization. “Oh.” Rory leaned in and kissed her. After a pause, Amy kissed him back. 

“Oh, are they really doing that now?” the Doctor grumbled. Lilith just snickered. “What's so funny?”

“Remember after Krop Tor when we picked up Rose and you two had a make out session with me still in the console room?” Lilith grinned. “Or the time in the 50’s with the Wire and you and her started kissing in the middle of the street? Or when she attacked your face on New Earth? Or when you attacked hers the New Years after you regenerated? Or that Christmas when Jackie caught you two--”

“I get the point, Lilith, thanks.”

“Any time.”

“So!” The Doctor clapped his hands together. “Well, then, where now? Or should I just pop down to the swimming pool for a few lengths?”

Rory grinned at his fiancée. “I don't know. Anywhere's good for me. I'm happy anywhere. It's up to Amy this time. Amy's choice.”


	19. Not Rio

“Are you really going to be wearing that?” Amy asked once the TARDIS landed. 

Lilith looked down at her outfit. “Um, yeah? I always wear this.”

“Jeans and a turtleneck? In Rio?”

“Not all of us can pull off a mini skirt and a tank top, Pond.”

“Are you ready?” The Doctor asked, excitedly throwing open the doors. “Behold... Rio!”

The sight that greeted them is a cemetery. Lilith, Amy, and Rory step out.

Amy crossed her arms. “Nuh-uh.”

Lilith snickered. “Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe.”

“No.” The Doctor walked forward. “Ooh, feel that, though, what's that?” He started bouncing in place. “Ground feels strange... Just me. Wait... That's weird.”

“What's weird?” Rory asked. 

Amy crossed her arms. “Doctor, stop trying to distract us. We're in the wrong place. It's freezing and I've dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here. Doctor! You listening to me? It's a graveyard! You promised me a beach.”

The Doctor ignored her and plucked a blade of grass. “Blue grass. Patches of it all round the graveyard. So, Earth, 2020-ish, ten years in your future, wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot.”

Amy squinted her eyes at something in the distance. “Why are those people waving at us?”

The Doctor frowned. “Can't be.” He took out binoculars and looked through them. “It is! It's you two.”

“Really?” Lilith grabbed the binoculars and adjusted them, then looked back at their human companions. “Whoa. Trippy.”

Rory looked confused. “No, we're here. How can we be up there?”

“Ten years in your future. Come to relive past glories, I'd imagine,” the Doctor guessed. “Humans, you're so nostalgic.”

Amy looked at Rory. “We're still together in ten years?”

“No need to sound so surprised!” Rory protested.

She grabbed her fiancé’s hand. “Hey, let's go and talk to them! We can say hi to Future Us! How cool is that?”

Lilith grabbed her arm. “Yeah, let’s not.”

“These things get complicated very quickly,” the Doctor attempted to explain. “And...oh, look! Big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing. See, way better than Rio! Rio doesn't have a big mining thing.”

Lilith sighed. “And this is where he insists we go have a look.”

“Let's go and have a look!” He started to head down into the valley. “Come on, let's see what they're doing.”

Rory turned to Amy. “If he can't get us to Rio, how's he ever going to get us back home?”

“Not to point out the obvious, but you two are over there. Clearly, it all works out fine,” Lilith said.

“After everything we've seen, we just drop back into our old lives, the nurse and the kissogram?”

Amy shrugged. “I guess. He's getting away.” She took Rory by the arm.

“Hang on. What are you doing with that?” He pointed at her ring finger.

She looked down at it. “Engagement ring! I thought you liked me wearing it.”

“Amy! You could lose it! Cost...a lot of money, that!”

“Hmm.” She took off the ring and gives it to him. “Spoilsport.”

“Go on. I'll catch up.” Rory headed back to the TARDIS.

Lilith shooed her away. “I’ll wait for him. Go on, Amy.”

Amy ran after the Doctor and Lilith leaned against the TARDIS and waited for Rory to emerge. When he did, a woman and her son walked over.

“Well, that was quick!” she exclaimed.

Rory furrowed his eyebrows. “Was it?”

“It's great that you came.”

“Bit retro,” her son said, looking at the TARDIS. “What is it, portable crime lab?”

Lilith blinked in surprise. “Oh. Uh, sort of.”

“Ambrose Northover.” The woman shook Rory’s hand, then Lilith’s. “I was the one who called. I run the meals on wheels for the whole valley. This is my son, Elliot.”

“Where's your uniforms?” Elliot asked.

“Don't be cheeky, Elliot,” Ambrose scolded. “They’re plain clothes. CID, is it? Anyway, it's over here.” She walked off.

Rory, a little unsure of what to do, looked at Lilith, who shrugged. They follow. Ambrose and Elliot were looking into an open grave.

“It's a family plot, see. My aunt Gladys died six years ago. Her husband, Alun, died a few weeks back. He lived in the house two doors down. There's not many of us left up here now.”

“Mum, he doesn't care about that!” Elliot insisted. “He wants to know about the dead bodies.”

Lilith perked up. “Dead bodies, sounds interesting.”

“Yes. Sorry. Well, they always wanted to be buried in the same plot, together. But when we went to bury Uncle Alun, Gladys wasn't there. Gone. Body, coffin, everything.”

Rory blanched. “What?”

“The mad thing is,” Ambrose continued, “on the surface, the grave was untouched. No signs of it having been messed with.”

“I'm sorry, I don't understand.”

“Nobody has touched the grave since my aunt was buried. But when they dug it open, the body was gone. How is that possible?”

Ambrose left and Rory and Lilith climbed down into the muddy grave, Lilith jumping up and down like the Doctor. “Dad’s right. Something’s off,” Lilith decided.

“Do you want sugar?” the kid asked.

Rory looked up at him. “Sorry?”

“In your tea,” he clarified. “Mum's asking.”

“No. Just white, thanks.”

“No tea for me. Thanks though,” Lilith said, absently.

Elliot looked down at the grave. “There's only one explanation, as far as I can see.”

“What's that, then?” Rory questioned.

“The graves eat people. Devour them whole, leaving no trace,” the kid concluded.

Rory frowned. “Not sure about that.”

“They didn't steal the body from above. They couldn't have got in from the sides. Only other thing is, they get in from underneath,” Elliot reasoned.

Rory wrinkled his nose. “Not very likely, though.”

“When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

“Sorry?”

Lilith nodded. “Sherlock Holmes, very nice. So the graves round here eat people…” She muttered the last bit. Elliot left and Rory shuddered.

* * *

There was a whirring sound and red lights streaked across the sky. “Whoa, did you see that?” Nasreen asked.

“No, no, no!” The Doctor took out a slingshot, picked up a rock and fired it at the sky. It hit a force field, red lights streaked out from the impact. He took out his sonic screwdriver, and aimed it at the sky, revealing the field surrounds the village and the drill site. “Energy signal originating from under the Earth. We're trapped.”

Rory and Lilith joined them, followed by Elliot and Ambrose.

“Doctor! Something weird's going on here, the graves are eating people,” Rory told the Time Lord.

“Not now, Rory!” the Doctor snapped. “Energy barricade. Invisible to the naked eye. We can't get out and no one from the outside world can get in.”

Rory’s eyes widened. “What? Okay, what about the TARDIS?”

Lilith shook her head. “No, those energy patterns would play havoc with the circuits.”

“With a bit of time, maybe we could,” the Doctor admitted, “but we've only got nine and a half minutes.”

“Nine and a half minutes to what?” Rory inquired.

“We're trapped. And something's burrowing towards the surface,” Nasreen explained.

Rory looked around. “Where's Amy?”

“Get everyone inside the church!” the Doctor ordered, picking up the computer. “Rory, I'll get her back.”

“What d'you mean, get her back? Where's she gone?” Rory demanded.

“She was taken. Into the Earth.”

“How?! Why didn't you stop it?”

The Doctor put down the case. “I tried. I promise, I tried.”

“Well, you should've tried harder!” Rory shouted.

“Rory!” Lilith chided. “I’m sure he did what he could.”

“I'll find Amy. I'll keep you all safe. I promise. Come on, please. I need you two alongside me.” The Doctor picked up the case again and headed for the church.

When they reached the doors, Tony was struggling to them open.

“Step aside.” Lilith kicked the door open.

The church was in a severe state of disrepair and disuse with boxes, crates and junk everywhere. The Doctor, Lilith, Nasreen, and Tony started setting up the equipment.

“So we can't get out, we can't contact anyone. And something, the something that took my husband, is coming up through the Earth,” Ambrose said, disbelievingly.

“Yes. If we move quickly enough, we can be ready,” the Doctor said.

Lilith tried to tune out the human arguing. Elliot’s question of the Doctor caught her attention. “Can you get my dad back?” he asked.

Everyone looked at the Doctor. “Yes.” He walked over to Ambrose. “But I need you to trust me and do exactly as I say from this second onwards because we're running out of time.”

She nodded. “So tell us what to do.”

“Thank you. We have eight minutes to set up a line of defence. Bring me every phone, camera, every piece of recording or transmitting equipment you can find.Every burglar alarm, every movement sensor, every security light. I want the whole area covered with sensors,” the Doctor instructed.

Rory collected all of the small electronics he could find while Ambrose and Lilith hooked up cameras at ideal positions. The Doctor uses the sonic on them. They all met back at the church and the monitor showed that whatever it was that was coming up was getting closer. “Right, we need to be ready for whatever's coming up.” The Doctor turned to Elliot. “I need a map of the village, marking where the cameras are going.”

“I can't do the words,” the kid protested. “I'm dyslexic.”

“Oh, that's all right, I can't make a decent meringue. Draw like your life depends on it, Elliot.”

Elliot ran off and Lilith turned to her father. “How much longer have we got?

“6 minutes 40,” he replied.

Nasreen watched as the time counted down while Tony pulled up an overlay of the village. “Works in quadrants, every movement sensor and triplight we've got. If anything moves, we'll know.”

The Doctor slapped Tony on the back. “Good lad!”

He dragged Lilith outside to look through Ambrose’s van. The woman in question walked by with her arms full of gardening implements and anything else that could be used as a weapon. “Oi! What're you doing?”

“Resources!” the Doctor responded. “Every little helps! Meals on wheels. What've you got here then, warmer in the front, refrigerated in the back.”

“Bit chilly for a hideout, mind.” Ambrose set the items in the front of the van.

“What are those?” Lilith asked.

“Like he says, every little helps.”

The Doctor crossed his arms. “No! No weapons. It's not the way I do things.”

“She’s got a weapon.” Ambrose nodded towards the blaster in its holster at Lilith hip.

“She refuses to let that thing out of her sight. Ambrose, you're better than this. I'm asking nicely. Put them away.”

The Doctor and Lilith went back into the church. The countdown showed 3:23. Elliot ran in with his map and gave it to the Doctor.

“Look at that! Perfect!” the Time Lord declared. “Dyslexia never stopped Da Vinci or Einstein, it's not stopping you.”

“I don't understand what you're going to do.”

“Two phase plan. First, the sensors and cameras will tell us when something arrives. Second, if something does arrive, I use this to send a sonic pulse through that network of devices, a pulse which would temporarily incapacitate most things in the universe.”

Elliot grinned. “Knock 'em out. Cool.”

“Lovely place to grow up, round here,” Lilith commented.

The kid shrugged. “Suppose. I want to live in a city one day. Soon as I'm old enough, I'll be off.”

“I was the same, where I grew up,” the Doctor said.

“Did you get away?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you ever miss it?”

“So much.”

Elliot paused. “Is it monsters coming? Have you met monsters before?”

The Doctor looked reluctant to answer. “Yeah.”

“You scared of them?” he questioned.

“No, Elliot,” Lilith said, sincerely. “They're scared of us.”

“Will you really get my dad back?” Elliot asked quetly.

“No question.” The Doctor returned to working on the computer.

“I left my headphones at home.” Elliot left with one minute left on the countdown.

* * *

When Lilith met up with Rory, it was dark out and he was setting up a camera on one of the gravestones. “How're you doing?” she asked.

“It's getting darker.” Rory observed, looking up at the sky to see the light being blocked. “How can it be getting dark so quickly?”

“Shutting out light from within the barricade,” the Doctor answered as he joined them. “Trying to isolate us in the dark. Which means…” A loud rumbling sound echoed through the darkness. “It's here.”

The Doctor, Rory, and Lilith headed back to the church where Ambrose was having trouble with the door. “I can't open it! It keeps sticking! The wood's warped.”

The Doctor tried, unsuccessfully to open the door. He turned to Rory and Lilith. “Any time you two want to help!”

Rory frowned. “Can't you sonic it?”

“The sonic doesn't do wood,” Lilith explained.

“That is rubbish!” the human scoffed.

“Oi!” the Doctor reprimanded him. “Don't diss the sonic!”

Rory and Lilith joined them and the four managed to open the door.


	20. Things Discovered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the delay, guys. Finals are coming up and studying is taking up too much of my time D':

The Doctor, Rory, Lilith and Ambrose joined Tony and Nasreen as the church door slamed shut behind them. The ground was shaking due to the imminent arrival. The Doctor ran to the computer. Items began falling off shelves. The Doctor narrowed down the area with the program Tony set up. The computers sparked as the power went out.

“No power,” Tony said, nervously, grabbing a flashlight.

“It's deliberate,” Lilith noted.

“What do we do now?” Rory wondered.

The Doctor whacked the computer. “Nothing. We've got nothing! They sent an energy surge to wreck our systems.”

“Is everyone okay? Is anyone hurt?” Rory questioned

“I'm fine.”

“I’m good.”

“Me too.”

There was a loud rumbling and Lilith put her hand on her blaster as holes in the floor crumbled into existence. “I don’t like this.”

Tony stared at them. “It's like the holes at the drill station.”

“Is this how they happened?” Nasreen asked. 

The Doctor kneeled, then bent over to listen to the ground. “It's coming through the final layer of Earth.”

“What is?”

“The banging's stopped,” Tony realized.

Ambrose looks around the room. “Where's Elliot? Has anyone seen Elliot? Did he come in? Was he in when the door was shut? Who counted him back in? Who saw him last?”

Lilith frowned. “We did.”

“Where is he?”

“He said he was going to get headphones,” the Doctor answered.

“And you let him go?” Ambrose demanded. “He was out there on his own?”

Someone started pounding on the door. “Mum! Grandpa Tony! Let me in!” Elliot shouted from outside.

“Elliot!” Ambrose cried, rushing to the door.

“Let me in!”

“He's out there! Help me.”

Elliot continued to pound on the church door. “Open the door! Mum! There's something out here!”

The group struggled to open the door. “Push, Elliot, push, Elliot!”

“Mum!”

“Hurry up!”

Tony managed to pry the door open. Ambrose rushed outside. “Elliot! Where is he? (runs out) He was here. He was here! Elliot!” She ran into the graveyard.

The Doctor tried to stop her. “Ambrose, don't go running off!”

“Ambrose!” Tony ran after her.

Lilith, Rory, and the Doctor chase after them. They found Tony on his knees in pain with Ambrose leaning over him, worriedly.

“What happened?” Lilith asked.

“My dad's hurt,” said Ambrose.

“Get him into the church now!” the Doctor ordered.

“Elliot's gone. They've killed him, haven't they?”

He shook his head. “I don't think so. They've taken three people, when they could've just killed them up here. There's still hope, Ambrose. There is always hope.”

She started to cry. “Then why've they taken him?”

“I don't know. I'll find Elliot, I promise. But first I've gotta stop this attack. Please, get inside the church.”

Ambrose helped Tony to his feet and the two headed back to the church.

“So, what now?” asked Rory.

“You two stay here for the moment,” the Doctor instructed before wandering off, taking a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket.

Lilith gave him a few moments to find the creature before reaching out telepathically.  _ ‘What are they?’ _

_ ‘Homo Reptilia,’  _ he responded.

_ ‘Silurians?’ _

_ ‘Cold blooded. You thinking what I’m thinking?’ _

_ ‘I’ll bring Rory to the van. We’ll hide in the back.’   _ Lilith grabbed Rory’s wrist and dragged him to the meals on wheels van. “Get in,” she hissed, shoving him into the back of the van.

“What are we--”

“Shh!”

Lilith waited until the creature screamed and the two of them jumped out of the bavanck, yelling. They shoved the creature in the refrigerated back and locked the door. “We got it!” Rory cheered.

“Defending the planet with meals on wheels!” Lilith laughed. They raised their hands to high five but were distracted by a rumbling.

“What was that?”

“Sounds like they're leaving,” the Doctor commented.

“Without this one?” The darkness faded as the sun was allowed to shine through again. “Looks like we scared them off!”

“I don't think so,” the Doctor said darkly. “Now both sides have hostages.”

* * *

Rory and Lilith were leaning against a wall when the Doctor approached. “I've met these creatures before, different branch of the species, but all the same.” He went to basement door. “Lilith, Let's see if our friend's thawed out!”

“Are you sure?” Rory asked, nervously. “Just you two?”

“Very sure.”

“But the sting…”

“Venom gland takes at least 24 hours to recharge,” the Doctor assured him.

Lilith put her hand on Rory’s shoulder. “He knows what he's doing. We'll be fine.”

Rory left and the Doctor and Lilith walked down the remaining steps to the floor. Lilith got her first clear glimpse of the creature and it was definitely reptilian with large dark eyes. It was wearing some sort of chainmail. With bound hands, it moved forward along the floor towards the Doctor.

The Doctor put his hands up. “I'm the Doctor and this is Lilith. We've come to talk. I'm going to remove your mask.”

he squatted down and gently removed the creature’s mask, revealing a humanoid face. “You are beautiful. Remnant of a bygone age on planet Earth. And by the way, lovely mode of travel! Geothermal currents, projecting you up through a network of tunnels. Gorgeous! Mind if I sit?” He stood and grabbed a folding chair, taking a seat in front of the Silurian. “Now, your people have a friend of ours. We want her back. Why did you come to the surface? What do you want? Oh, I do hate a monologue. Give us a bit back. How many are you?”

“I'm the last of my species,” she hissed.

The Doctor scowled. “Really? No. ‘Last of the species’, the Klempari Defence. As an interrogation defence, it's a bit old hat, I'm afraid.”

“I'm the last of my species.”

“No. You're really not. Because I'm one of the last of my species and I know how it sits in a heart. So don't insult me. Let's start again. Tell me your name.”

The Silurian hesitated. “Alaya.”

“How long has your tribe been sleeping under the Earth, Alaya? It's not difficult to work out. You're 300 million years out of your comfort zone. Question is, what woke you now?”

“We were attacked.”

Lilith nodded in understanding. “The drill.”

“Our sensors detected a threat to our life support systems. The warrior class was activated to prevent the assault. We will wipe the vermin from the surface and reclaim our planet.”

The Doctor made a face. “Do we have to say vermin? They're really very nice.”

“Primitive apes,” Alaya dismissed.

Lilith snorted, reminded of the Ninth Doctor. “How very northern of you.”

The Doctor glared at Lilith, then turns back to Alaya. “Extraordinary species. You attack them, they'll fight back. But, there's a peace to be brokered here. I can help you with that.”

“This land is ours,” the Silurian insisted. “We lived here long before the apes.”

“Doesn't give you automatic rights to it now, I'm afraid. Humans won't give up the planet,” the Doctor said.

“So we destroy them.”

“You underestimate them,” Lilith warned her.

“You underestimate us,” she warned right back.

“One tribe of homo reptilia against six billion humans, you've got your work cut out,” the Doctor cut in.

Alaya stood. “We did not initiate combat. But we can still win.”

“Tell me where our friend is. Give us back the people who were taken.”

She narrowed her eyes. “No.”

The Doctor sighed and stood. “I'm not going to let you provoke a war, Alaya. There'll be no battle here today.” He headed for the door. 

“The fire of war is already lit. A massacre is due.” Alaya sounded smug.

He stopped in his tracks. “Not while we're here.”

“I'll gladly die for my cause. What will you sacrifice for yours?”

Without a word, the Doctor turned and left. Lilith followed.

* * *

The Doctor, Rory, Lilith, and Tony were sitting in the main room. Ambrose and Nasreen were pacing.

“We’re going to go down there,” Lilith told the group.

Rory gaped at her. “You're going to what?”

“Dad and I are going to go down below the surface, to find the rest of the tribe. To talk to them.”

Ambrose frowned. “You're going to negotiate with these aliens?”

“They're not aliens!” the Doctor insisted. “They're Earth...liens! Once known as the Silurian race, or, some would argue, Eocenes, or Homo reptilia. Not monsters, not evil. Well, only as evil as you are. The previous owners of the planet, that's all. Look, from their point of view, you're the invaders. Your drill was threatening their settlement. Now, the creature in the crypt. Her name's Alaya. She's one of their warriors and she's my best bargaining chip. I need her alive. If she lives, so do Elliot and Mo and Amy. Because I will find them. While I'm gone, you four people, in this church, in this corner of planet Earth, you have to be the best of humanity.”

“What if they come back?” Tony asked. “Shouldn't we be examining this creature, dissecting it, finding its weak points?”

Lilith glared at him. “No dissecting, No examining! How would you like it if someone dissected and examined you? The Silurians are a sentient and intelligent species. We return their hostage, they return ours. Nobody gets harmed.”

“We can land this, together. If you are the best you can be. You are decent, brilliant people. Nobody dies today. Understand?” The Doctor looked at each of the humans in turn.

Everyone nodded quietly. The Doctor and Lilith left the church and head for the TARDIS. Nasreen ran up behind him.

“No, sorry, no, what're you doing?” the Doctor protested.

Nasreen crossed her arms. “Coming with you, of course! What is it, some kind of transport pod?”

“Sort of, but you're not...coming with us!” 

Tony joined them. “He's right, you're not.”

“I have spent all my life excavating the layers of this planet. And now you want me to stand back while you head down into it? I don't think so!” the human woman insisted.

The Doctor checked his watch. “I don't have time to argue!”

“I thought we were in a rush,” Nasreen said, smugly.

“It'll be dangerous,” Lilith warned.

“Oh, so's crossing the road.”

“Oh, for goodness' sake, all right, then! Come on!” The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS and went inside.

Nasreen did a double take upon entering the ship. The Doctor and Lilith were a;ready at the console. “Welcome aboard the TARDIS,” Lilith grinned.

“Now don't touch anything! Very precious,” the Doctor told Nasreen.

She walked over from the doorway. “No way! But that's... this is… fantastic! What does it do?”

“Everything! I'm hoping, if we're going down, that barricade won't interfere.” The TARDIS pitched drastically. Lilith, the Doctor, and Nasreen clung to the console. “Did you touch something?” the Doctor demanded.

“No! Isn't this what it does?” Nasreen asked.

“It’s usually not this bad!” Lilith shouted over the sounds of protest the ship was making.

“Oi! I'm not doing anything! We've been hijacked! I can't stop it! They must've sensed the electromagnetic field!” The Doctor checked the monitor. “They're pulling the TARDIS down into the Earth!”

The three of them hold onto the console and yell. When the TARDIS landed, they all fell to the floor. “Where are we?”

The Doctor and Lilith get up and ran for the door. Nasreen followed.

The Time Lord held a hand outside the door before stepping out. There were roots and fungus covering the walls. Nasreen stepped out and looked around in awe. The Doctor whistled in amazement as he looked up the way they fell. “Looks like we fell through the bottom of their tunnel system. Don't suppose it was designed for handling something like this.”

“How far down are we?” Nasreen wondered.

“A lot more than twenty one kilometer.”

“So why aren't we burning alive?”

“Don't know,” the Doctor said, studying the area. “Interesting, isn't it?”

Nasreen gaped at him. “It's like this is everyday to you!”

“Not every day,” Lilith argued. “More like every other day.”

Lilith and the Doctor headed down one of the tunnels, and, after a slight delay, Nasreen followed. They walked past an opening, but Nasreen stopped to look as he talked. “We're looking for a small tribal settlement. Probably housing around a dozen homo reptilia. Maybe less.”

“One small tribe,” Nasreen said slowly.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe a dozen?”

The Doctor and Lilith joined her and saw what she was looking at. Below them was a large community, verging on a city with buildings and monuments. “Maybe more than a dozen. Maybe more like an entire civilization living beneath the Earth.”

Lilith swore in Gallifreyan

 

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	21. Homo Reptilia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got no excuse for going MIA beyond a severe and lengthy case of writers block when it came to most things Lilith related, but I'm back now with better ADD meds and a determination to finished this series off.

_ “It is! It's you two.” _

 

_ “Hey, let's go and talk to them! We can say hi to Future Us! How cool is that?” _

 

_ “We got it!” _

_ “Defending the planet with meals on wheels!” _

 

_ “Her name's Alaya. She's one of their warriors and she's my best bargaining chip. I need her alive. If she lives, so do Elliot and Mo and Amy. Because I will find them.” _

 

_ “The Silurians are a sentient and intelligent species. We return their hostage, they return ours. Nobody gets harmed.” _

 

_ “Nobody dies today.” _

 

_ “Maybe more than a dozen. Maybe more like an entire civilization living beneath the Earth.” _

_ Lilith swore in Gallifreyan. _

* * *

* * *

The Doctor, Lilith and Nasreen walked along the pathways in a cavern above molten magma and past buildings.

“This place is enormous and deserted. The majority of the race are probably still asleep.” The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver. “We need to find Amy, looking for heat signature anomalies.”

“But, Doctor, how can all this be here?” Nasreen asked. “I mean, these plants…”

“Must be getting closer to the centre of the city,” he mused.

“You're sure this is the best way to enter?” the human wondered, nervously.

“Front door approach! Definitely. Always the best way…”

An alarm sounded and a female voice spoke over a speaker system. “ _ Hostile life force detected, area 17. _ ”

Lilith, the Doctor, and Nasreen stopped. Lilith glared at her father. “Front door is the best, is that what we’re going with?

“Apart from the back door approach, that's also good,” the Doctor allowed, turning around. “sometimes better.”

A door slides open in front of Nasreen. “Doctor!” she shouted.

Armed Silurian soldiers came through the open door as the warning repeated. More arrived through the tunnel behind them. The Doctor raised his hands. “We're not hostile, we're not armed!” He glaced at the blaster at Lilith’s hip. “Well, most of us aren’t. But we're here in peace!”

The Silurians shot gas from their weapons. The Doctor, Nasreen and Lilith fell to the floor, unconscious.

When Lilith came to again, she was strapped to a metal slab. Somewhere to her left, the Doctor was crying out in pain as a machine scanned him. A female Silurian— warrior class, Lilith assumed— was questioning a male who appeared to be a scientist.

“How can they have escaped?” the female demanded. “This proves all prisoners should remain under military guard.”

“I'm sure you'd prefer to be in charge of everything and everyone, Restac. But we rank the same,” the scientist responded. “Is there any word from Alaya?”

“No,” the female, Restac, said shortly as she turned to watch the Doctor writhe in pain.

“It's fine to show concern, you know. She's part of your gene-chain. I'm decontaminating the male now.”

Lilith mentally swore in Gallifreyan. “No!” she shouted.

“Decontamination! No, no, no!” the Doctor wailed in pain.  

“It’s all right,” the scientist tried to assure him. “It won't harm you. I'm only neutralising all your ape bacteria.”

“I'm not an ape!” the Time Lord cried. “Me and the younger one, we’re not human! Look at the scans! Two hearts! Totally different! Totally not ape! Remove all human germs, you remove half the things keeping us alive!”

The scientist checked the scans and then shut down the machine.

Both Lilith and the Doctor sighed in relief. “Oh, that's much better, thanks! Not got any celery, have you? No, no, not really the climate, tomatoes, though, you'd do a roaring trade in those. I'm the Doctor and she’s Lilith. Oh, and there's Nasreen, good!”

The scientist went over to examine Nasreen.

“Oh, a green man,” Nasreen mumbled as she woke.

The Doctor turned to Restac. “Hello, who are you?”

“Restac. Military commander,” she responded, shortly.

“Oh, really?” Lilith snorted. “There's always got to be a military.”

“Your weapon was attacking the oxygen pockets above our city,” the scientist informed the Gallifreyans.

The Doctor beamed. “Oxygen pockets! Lovely! Oooh, but not so good with an impending drill! Now it makes sense!”

The scientist nodded and continued to examine Nasreen. Restac crossed her arms and glared at the Doctor. “Where is the rest of your invasion force?”

He actually looked shocked. “Invasion force? Me, Lilith, and lovely Nasreen? No! We came for the humans you took. And… to offer the safe return of Alaya.” His expression shifted as he recalled something the Silurians had mentioned. “Oh, wait, you and she, what is it, same genetic source? Of course you're worried, but don't be, she's safe.”

Restac scowled. “You claim to come in peace, but you hold one of us hostage.” She motioned for soldiers to take position by Lilith and Nasreen.

“Wait, wait, we all want the same thing here,” the Doctor protested.

“I don't negotiate with apes.” The commander turned to the scientist. “I'm going to send a clear message to those on the surface.”

“What's that?” asked the Doctor.

“Your execution.”

Lilith groaned and let her head fall against the metal slab. “Lovely.”

* * *

The three of them were escorted through the city, in a section that Lilith assumed was meant to act like a park. “These must be the only ones awake,” the Doctor observed, quietly, “the others must still be in hibernation.”

“So, why did they go into hibernation in the first place?” Nasreen wondered.

“Their astronomers predicted a planet heading to Earth on a crash course,” the Doctor explained. “They a built life underground and put themselves to sleep for millennia in order to avert what they thought was the apocalypse. When in reality, it was the moon, coming into alignment with the Earth.”

Restac stopped marching and looked at the Doctor. The scientist looked at him too. “How can you know that?”

He shrugged. “Long time ago, I met another tribe of homo reptilia, similar, but not identical.”

“Others of our species have survived?” the female Silurian asked.

Lilith exchanged glances with her father, knowing the story of the time he was talking about. “The humans attacked them. They died, I'm sorry.”

“A vermin race,” Restac spat and the escort continued on to the courtroom. The Silurians entered first, followed by the Doctor, then Nasreen, then Lilith.

“You're not authorised to do this!” the scientist continued to argue.

“I'm authorised to protect the safety of our species while they sleep.”

The Doctor surveyed their surroundings. “Oh, lovely place, very gleaming.”

“This is our court and our place of execution,” Restac told him.

“That does dampen the beauty, doesn’t it?” Lilith snarked.

Sudden, Amy burst through another door, aiming a gun at the Silurian commander. “Let them go!”

“Amy Pond, there's a girl to rely on!” declared the Doctor.

A human man came through the main door. “You're covered both ways, so don't try anything clever, buster,” Amy warned. “Now let them go, or I shoot. I'm warning you!” She added the last bit as Restac moved closer. 

“Mo!” Nasreen shouted.

The Silurian managed to take the gun from Amy, pushing her to the ground.

Lilith ran to the other ginger’s side. “Amy!”

Restac glared at Mo. “And you,” she snarled. Soldiers approached on the human and he gave up his gun.

“All right, Restac. You've made your point,” the scientist tried to placate her. 

She advanced on the scientist. “This is now a military tribunal. Go back to your laboratory, Malohkeh.”

One of the soldiers jabbed Malokeh in the back. He looked at Lilith and Amy, then back at Restac. “This isn't the way,” he said before leaving.

Restac gave the order to prepare them for execution and the Doctor, Lilith, Amy, Nasreen and Mo were tied to pillars.

“Okay, sorry, as rescues go, didn't live up to its potential,” Amy apologized.

Lilith smiled at her. “We’re just glad you're alright.”

“Me too! Lizard men, though!”

“Homo reptilia,” the Doctor corrected. “They occupied the planet before humans. Now they want it back.”

“After they've wiped out the human race,” Lilith added.

Amy frowned. “Right, preferred it when I didn't know, to be honest.”

The soldiers had lined up like a firing squad. Nasreen watched them. “Why are they waiting? What do you think they're going to do with us?”

Restac was fiddling with some technology and an projection of the humans back in the church flickered to life. “Who is the ape leader?” the Silurian demanded. “Who speaks for the apes?”

The three humans in the projection looked at each other and Rory stepped forward. “ _ I speak for the... humans. Some of us, anyway. _ ”

“Do you understand who we are?” Restac asked.

“ _ Sort of. A bit. Not really, _ ” he admitted.

“We have ape hostages.” She stepped aside so they were able to see the tied up humans and Gallifreyans.

“ _ Amy! Lilith! Doctor! _ ” Rory’s image got larger as he moved closer to whatever was recording.

“ _Mo!_ ” Ambrose shouted. “ _Mo, are you OK?_ ”

“I'm fine, love!” Mo assured her. “I've found Elliot. I'm bringing him home!”

“ _ Amy! I thought I'd lost you! _ ” The relief in Rory’s voice was audible.

Amy scoffed, jokingly. “What, ‘cause I was sucked into the ground? You're so clingy.”

“Tony Mack!” Nasreen called.

“ _ Having fun down there? _ ”

“Show me Alaya,” Restac demanded. “Show me and release her, immediately, unharmed, or we kill your friends one by one.”

“ _ No! _ ” Ambrose cried.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Not to interrupt, but just a quick reminder that we all need to stay calm.”

“ _ Ambrose, stop it! _ ” Tony scolded.

“ _ Get off me, Dad! We didn't start this! _ ”

“Let Rory deal with this Ambrose!” Lilith snapped.

The image of Ambrose shrugged her father off. “ _ We're not doing what you and he say any more. Now, give me back my family! _ ”

Everyone waited tensely for Restac’s reply. Lilith and Amy exchanged glances. “No. Execute the tallest girl.”

The soldiers moved towards Amy. Rory pushed Ambrose aside. “ _ No! No, wait! She's not speaking for us! Amy! _ ”

“Rory!” Amy was pushed to the center of the room in front of the soldiers.

Lilith struggled against the chains. “No!”

“There's no need for this,” the Doctor protested.

Restac paid him no mind. “Aim.”

“Don't!” Lilith shouted.

“ _ No! _ ” The connection with the church was lost and the projection just showed static.

“Fire!”

“Stop!” ordered a new voice. Malokeh enters with a Silurian elder. “You want to start a war, while the rest of us sleep, Restac?”

“The apes are attacking us!” she insisted. 

“You're our protector, not our commander, Restac. Unchain them.”

“I do not recognize your authority at this time, Eldane,” she snarled.

Eldane held out his arms. “Well, then, you must shoot me.”

Frustrated, Restac advanced on Malokeh. “You woke him to undermine me.”

“We're not monsters,” Malokeh responded calmly. “And neither are they.”

“What is it about apes you love so much? Mm?”

“While you slept, they've evolved. I've seen it for myself.”

“We used to hunt apes for sport. When we came underground, they bred and polluted this planet.”

Eldane stepped between them. “Shush now, Restac. Go and play soldiers. I'll let you know if I need you.”

Restac got in his face. “You'll need me, then we'll see.” She stormed out of the room. The soldiers released Lilith, the Doctor, and the others and the Doctor ran over to fix the projector. “Rory!” he said when the picture returned. “Hello!”

“ _ Where's Amy? _ ” was predictably Rory’s first question.

“She's fine. Look, here she is.” The Doctor moved aside so Rory could see.

Rory relaxed. “ _ Oh, thank God. _ ”

“Keeping you on your toes!” Amy said, brightly.

“No time to chat. Listen, you need to get down here. Go to the drill storeroom, there's a large patch of earth in the middle of the floor. The Silurians are going to send up transport discs to bring you back down using geothermal energy and gravity bubble-technology. It's how they travel and frankly it's pretty cool.”

Lilith poked him. “Focus!”

The Doctor nodded. “Right. Bring Alaya. We hand her over, we can land this after all. All going to work, promise. Got to dash! Hurry up!” he turned off the projector.

* * *

Eventually, Amy and Nasreen found themselves seated on one side of a long table with Eldane on the other. The Doctor, Lilith, Mo and Malokeh were still standing. “I'd say, you've got a fair bit to talk about,” the Doctor said.

“How so?” asked Eldane.

Lilith was the one to answer. “You both want the planet. You both have a genuine claim to it.”

Eldane glanced between her and the Doctor. “Are you authorised to negotiate on behalf of humanity?”

“Us? No! But they are!” The Doctor pointed to Amy and Nasreen.

Both women gaped at him.

“What?”

“No, we're not!”

“Course you are!” the Time Lord declared. “Amy Pond and Nasreen Chaudhry, speaking for the planet! Humanity couldn't have better ambassadors. Come on, who has more fun than us?”

Amy stood up and went over to him and Lilith to hiss, “Is this what happens, in the future, the planet gets shared? Is that what we need to do?”

Nasreen joined, having heard. “What are you talking about?”

“What my father has neglected to tell anyone is that he, Amy, Rory and I travel in time,” Lilith explained.

Nasreen blinked, seemingly unfazed. “Anything else?”

The Doctor and Lilith looked at each other. Lilith inclined her head. ‘ _ Well? Go on. _ ’

“There are fixed points through time, where things must always stay the way they are,” the Doctor began. “This is not one of them. This is an opportunity, a temporal tipping point. Whatever happens today, will change future events, create its own timeline, it's own reality. The future pivots around you. Here. Now. So do good. For humanity, and for Earth.”

Amy pursed her lips and headed back to the table. “Right. No pressure there, then.”

“We can't share the planet,” Nasreen protested. “Nobody on the surface is going to go for this idea. It is just too big a leap!”

“Come on,” the Doctor encouraged. “Be extraordinary.”

Nasreen sat back down.

“Okay! Bringing things to order! The first meeting of representatives of the human race and homo reptilian is now in session. Ha! Never said that before, that's fab! Carry on!” The Doctor started towards the door. “Now, Mo, let's go and get your son. Oh, you know, humans, and their predecessors, shooting the breeze. Never thought I'd see it.”

Lilith rolled her eyes and motioned for Mo and Malokeh to follow him. They caught up with the Doctor and Malokeh led them to Elliot. The Silurian pressed a few button on the panel outside where the boy was being help.

“If you've harmed him in any way…” Mo warned.

Malokeh looked over at him. “Of course not! I only store the young.”

“Why?” Lilith wondered, tilting her head to the side.

“I took samples of the young, slowed their lifecycles to a millionth of their normal rate. So I could study how they grew, what they needed, how they lived on the surface.”

“You've been down here, working by yourself, all alone?” asked the Doctor.

“My family, through the millennia... For the last 300 years, just me.” Malokeh answered before turning back to Mo. “I never meant to harm your child.”

The Doctor grinned. “Malohkeh, I rather love you.”

“It's safe. We can wake him.” Malokeh entered the room and removes the wires attached to Elliots face. He beckoned to Mo. “Come.”

Malokeh steps out and Mo took his place standing before the boy as he slowly blinked. “Elliot? Ell, it's Dad.”

“What?” Elliot shook his head. “Dad?”

They hugged. “You're safe now,” Mo promised.

“Where are we?” the boy asked.

“Well, I've got to be honest with you, son. We're in the center of the Earth... and there are lizard men.”

Elliot looked over to the doorway to see the Doctor, Lilith, and Malokeh. “Wow.”

“Elliot, I'm sorry. I took my eye off you,” the Doctor apologized.

“It's okay,” Elliot said. “I forgive you.”

“We should head back to check in on the negotiations,” Lilith suggested.

The Doctor clapped his hands. “Right! Absolutely!”

“You go on, Doctor. I'll catch up,” said Malokeh.

Lilith, the Doctor, Mo, and Elliot headed back to the Silurian Courtroom, the Doctor making an entrance with dramatic applause. “Not bad for a first session. More similarities than differences.”

There was an electronic whooshing sound. “The transport has returned,” Eldane informed them. “Your friends are here.”


	22. New

Rory was the first to find them, Ambrose right behind him. The Doctor grinned and waved. “Here they are.”

Elliot ran to his mother. “Mum!”

“Rory!” Amy beamed.

Rory’s mouth was moving like he was trying to find the right words to say. Lilith frowned. “Something's wrong…”

Tony entered carrying something wrapped in a tarp.

“Doctor, what's he carrying?” Amy asked.

The Doctor stepped forward, a grim look on his face, and the situation dawned on Lilith. “Oh, Rassilon,” she murmured.

“No.” The Doctor shook his head. “Don't do this. Tell me you didn't do this.”

Tony laid the shrouded body on the floor. The Doctor knelt down and pulled the cloth away from Alaya's face. He took a deep breath and replaced the tarp before standing and getting in Tony’s face. “What did you do?” he demanded.

“It was me,” Ambrose butt in. “I did it.”

Elliot stepped away, looking horrified. “Mum?”

She turned to him, pleading. “I just wanted you back.”

Elliot moved further away from her while everyone else looked on with pity and shame. The Doctor walked up to Eldane. “I'm sorry. I didn't know. You have to believe me, they're better than this.”

“This is our planet!” Ambrose shouted angrily.

“Shut up!” Lilith snapped. “There was a chance for peace, and you ruined it!”

The Doctor put a calming hand on Lilith shoulder before addressing the human woman. “In future, when you talk about this, you tell people there was a chance but you were so much less than the best of humanity.”

Armed soldiers crashed into the room with Restac on their heels. “My sister.” She spotted the body and wailed when she uncovered her sister’s face. She gently replaced the shroud. “And you want us to trust these apes, Doctor?”

“One woman. She was scared for her family. She's not typical,” the Doctor insisted.

Restac faced Ambrose. “I think she is.”

The Time Lord turned back to Eldane. “One person let us down. But there's a whole race of dazzling, peaceful human beings up there. You were building something, here, come on...a n alliance could work.”

“It's too late for that, Doctor,” Ambrose said, coldly.

The Doctor looks at her questioningly and Tony ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Lilith rolled her eyes. “Great. Who wants to bet we’re not going to like this?”

“Why is it too late?” the Doctor asked.

“Our drill is set to start again in,” Ambrose checked a stopwatch, “fifteen minutes.”

Nasreen gaped at Tony. “What?”

“What choice did I have?” he demanded. “They had Elliot.”

“Don't do this,” the Doctor warned. “Don't call their bluff.”

Ambrose stood her ground. “Let us go back. And you promise to never come to the surface ever again. We'll walk away, leave you alone.”

“Execute her!” Restac ordered.

‘ _This is me, not arguing with the psycho lizard lady,_ ’ Lilith muttered telepathically to her father.

‘ _Lilith, stop that,_ ’ the Doctor scolded as he pulled Ambrose to safety from the soldiers’ fire. “Everybody, back to the lab! Run!” he shouted out loud. The humans ran for the exit.

“Execute all the apes!” screeched the Silurian.

The Doctor pulled out the sonic and used it on the Silurians’ guns, causing them to explode. “This is a deadly weapon! Stay back!” he warned.

One of the soldiers approached from the seats and lashed out at the Doctor with their tongue.

“Dad!” Lilith pulled him out of the way and they ran out of the room, following the others through the tunnel.

“Take everyone to the lab!” the Doctor shouted to Rory, dodging a beam from a gun. “We'll cover you! Go! Go!” The Doctor and Lilith stopped running and took a stand as the others continued on. Restac and her warriors arrived and the Doctor used the sonic on their guns while Lilith drew her own blaster. “Ah, ah! Stop right there! Or I'll use my very deadly weapon again and let her shoot. One warning, that's all you get. If there can be no deal, you go back into hibernation. All of you. Now. This ends here.”

“No,” Restac argued. “It only ends with our victory.”

“Like I said... one warning.” He disabled the last two guns and Lilith shot Restac in the arm. They sprinted off to the lad where the Doctor was able to use the sonic to close the doors. “Elliot, you and your dad keep your eyes on that screen. Let me know if we get company. Amy, keep reminding me how much time I haven't got.”

The Doctor tossed Amy the stopwatch. She caught it and checked the time. “Okay, twelve minutes till drill impact.”

The Doctor went over to where Tony was sitting down. “Tony Mack, sweaty forehead, dilated pupils, what're you hiding?”

Tony opened his shirt to show him the infection that had spread across his chest.

“Tony!” Nasreen gasped. “What happened?”

“Alaya's sting,” the man explained. “She said there's no cure. I'm dying, aren't I?”

The Doctor scanned the infected area with the sonic and checked the readings. “You're not dying, you're mutating. How can I stop it? Decontamination program! Might work, don't know. Eldane, can you run the program on Tony?”

“Doctor, shedload of those creatures coming our way! We're surrounded in here!” Mo warned from his post.

Eldane helped Tony to the decontamination chamber as the Doctor paced and spoke. “So, question is, how we do stop the drill, given we can't get there in time? Plus also, how do we get out, given that we're surrounded? Nasreen, how d'you feel about an energy pulse, channelled up through the tunnels to the base of the drill?”

“To blow up my life's work?”

“Yes.”

“Dad!” Lilith scolded.

The Doctor grimaced. “Sorry. No nice way of putting that.”

Nasreen sighed. “Right, well, you're going to have to do it before the drill hits the city, in…”

“Eleven minutes, forty seconds,” Amy supplied.

“Yes! Squeaky bum time!” the Doctor declared.

“Yes, but the explosion is going to cave in all the surrounding tunnels so we have to be on the surface by then,” Nasreen pointed out.

“But we can't get past Restac's troops,” Rory reminded them.

“I can help with that,” Eldane offered. “Toxic Fumigation, an emergency failsafe meant to protect my species from infection. A warning signal to occupy cryo-chambers. After that, citywide fumigation, by toxic gas. Then the city shuts down.”

Amy frowned. “You could end up killing your own people.”

“Only those foolish enough to follow Restac,” the Silurian said.

The Doctor was hesitant. “Eldane, are you sure about this?”

Eldane nodded. “My priority is my race's survival. The Earth isn't ready for us to return yet.”

“No,” the Doctor admitted, “but maybe it should be. So here's the deal. Everybody listening? Eldane, you activate shutdown... I'll amend the system, set your alarm for one thousand years' time. One thousand years, to sort the planet out. To be ready. Pass it on. As legend, or prophesy, or religion, but somehow, make it known. This planet is to be shared.” He said the last part looking at the young boy.

“Yeah,” Elliot said. “I get you.”

“Nine minutes, seven seconds,” Amy put in.

The Doctor joined Eldane at controls. “Yes, fluid controls, my favourite! Energy pulse timed, primed and set. Before we go, energy barricade, need to cancel it out quickly.” He used the sonic on the controls.

“Fumigation pre-launching,” Eldane reported.

Rory came over. “There's not much time for us to get from here to the surface, Doctor!”

The Doctor nodded. “Ah ha, super-squeaky bum time! Get ready to run for your lives. Now—”

The Silurian interrupted, “But the decontamination program on your friend hasn't started yet.”

Everyone looked over at Tony in the chamber. “Well, go!” the man said. “All of you! Go!”

“No, we're not leaving you here!” Ambrose argued.

“Granddad!” Elliot ran to Tony and hugged him.

“Eight minutes, ten seconds,” Amy announced.

“Now you look after your mum. You mustn't blame her. She only did what she thought was right,” Tony told his grandson.

“I'm not going to see you again, am I?” the boy asked.

“I'll be here.” He touched Elliot's heart. “Always. I love you, boy.” He hugged him tightly and looked at Ambrose. “You be sure he gets home safe!”

Elliot went to Mo, who pulled him close. Ambrose sniffed. “This is my fault.”

“No, I can't go back up there. I'd be a freak show. The technology down here's my only hope.” Tony hugged her too.

“I love you, Dad.”

“Go. Go on.”

Eldane activated the fumigation and the tannoy crackled to life. “ _Toxic fumigation initiated. Toxic fumigation initiated._ ”

“They're going! We're clear!” Amy reported as she checked the surveillance.

“Okay. Everyone follow Lilith. Look for a blue box. Get ready to run.” The Doctor soniced the door and it slid open. He looked at Eldane. “I'm sorry.”

“I thought for a moment, our race, and the humans…”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“Doctor! We've got less than six minutes,” Amy informed him.

“Go! Go! I'm right behind you!”

Lilith and the humans rushed out of the room. When Lilith turned around and realized that the Doctor wasn’t behind them, she swore in Gallifreyan. “Amy, take them to the TARDIS,” she ordered.

“I don’t know where it is!” Amy protested.

“It’s a blue box, Pond, it can’t be that hard to find!” Lilith snapped and ran back to the lab. “Dad! Come on!”

The Doctor glanced at her and nodded. He hugged Nasreen, who Lilith assumed was staying behind with Tony, then grabs Lilith’s hand and headed for the door. In the tunnel, the Doctor and Lilith nearly crashed into Amy and Rory, who were running towards them.

“Other way, guys!” Lilith shouted, letting go of the Doctor’s hand to pull the Ponds along faster.

“ _Toxic fumigation is about to commence._ ”

Mo, Elliot, and Ambrose had paused on the bridge. The Doctor, Amy, Lilith, and Rory joined them and kept running through the next cavern while the tannoy repeated the announcement.

“Come on!” the Doctor shouted as they arrived in the tunnel where the TARDIS was. “No questions, just get in! And yes, I know it's big!” He unlocked the doors and ushered the human family inside. “Ambrose, sickbay up the stairs, left, then left again. Get yourself fixed up. Come on! Five minutes and counting.”

The Doctor stopped when he spotted the crack in the tunnel wall, the same crack from Amy's childhood bedroom.

Lilith saw it too. “Oh, crap.”

“Not here. Not now. It's getting wider.”

Amy stared at it. “The crack on my bedroom wall.”

 

> _Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together… right here in the wall of Amelia's bedroom._

 

The Doctor walked up to the wall and squatted down. “And the _Byzantium_. All through the universe, rips in the continuum.”

 

> _That's... that's like the crack from my bedroom wall from when I was a little girl._
> 
> _Exactly the same._

 

“Some sort of space-time cataclysm. An explosion, maybe. Big enough to put cracks in the universe. But what?” He studied the crack, fascinated.

Lilith bounced on her heels, impatient and unnerved. “Let’s go, come on!”

Amy checked the stopwatch. “Four minutes fifty, Doctor. Listen to Lilith!”

“The Angels laughed when I didn't know. Prisoner Zero knew, everybody knows, except us!” the Doctor said, frustrated.

“Doctor, just leave it.”

“But where there's an explosion,” he pulled a red hankie from a pocket inside his jacket,  “there's shrapnel.” He stepped closer to the crack.

“Dad, you can't put your hand in there!” Lilith protested.

“Why not?” He reached in with the hand holding the hankie and cried out in pain as the light got brighter. Lilith, Rory, and Amy watched nervously, all of them unsure what to do. “I've got something!”

“What is it?”

The Doctor fell to the ground, clutching the item wrapped in the hankie. It sizzled with heat and energy. “I don't know.”

“Doctor!” Rory shouted in warning. A dying Restac was crawling into the tunnel. The Doctor leapt up off the ground.

“She was there when the gas started,” Amy remembered. “She must've been poisoned.”

“You!” the Silurian snarled.

The Doctor reached into his pocket. “Okay, get in the TARDIS, all three of you.”

“You did this.” Restac aimed her gun at the Doctor, but Rory stepped in the way.

“Rory, no!” Lilith yelled. She shoved him out of the way. Restac fired two shots before dying. One hit Rory and the other hit Lilith.

“Lilith!” the Doctor shouted, dropping next to her.

She sat up and winced in pain. “No. Rory. Focus on Rory.”

Amy knelt next to Rory as the Doctor shifted to the human’s side and used the sonic on him. “Rory, can you hear me?”

“I don't understand,” Rory managed.

“Sh, don't talk.” Amy stroked his face. “Doctor, is he okay? We have to get him into the TARDIS!”

“We were on the hill. I can't die here.”

“Don't say that.”

“You're so beautiful… I'm sorry…” And with that, Lilith knew her friend was dead. She looked towards the crack and saw tendrils of light reaching out, touching Rory’s feet. Her father’s words from _Byzantium_ filtered into her mind.

 

> _If the time energy catches up with you, you'll never have been born. It will erase every moment of your existence. You will never have lived at all._

  

She pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the pain. “Dad.”

The Doctor saw the light too. He stood. “Amy, move away from the light, if it touches you you'll be wiped from history. Amy, move away now.”

“No!” she protested. “I am not leaving him! We have to help him!”

He gripped Amy gently by the shoulders. “The light's already around him, we can't help him.”

“I am not leaving him!”

“We have to.”

Lilith moaned in pain, clutching her side where she’d been hit. Her hands and side were glowing with artron energy. “Dad, we’ve got a problem.”

The Doctor looked over and his face fell. “Get in the TARDIS, Lilith,” he ordered. She obeyed, collapsing on the glass floor. The Doctor came in a moment later, dragging Amy behind him.

Amy ran to the door to get out yelling, “No!” But the Doctor used the screwdriver on the door to prevent her from leaving the ship. She shouted and pounded on the door. “Let me out, please let me out. I need to get Rory.”

The Doctor walked determinedly to the console. Amy turned around, tears streaming down her cheeks, and she saw the monitor. “That light, if his body's absorbed I'll forget him. He'll never have existed. You can't let that happen.”

The Doctor pulled a lever on the console and the TARDIS dematerialized. He knelt next to Lilith and held her glowing hand.

“Doctor, we can't just leave him there!” Amy cried.

“Keep him in your mind. Don't forget him. If you forget him, you'll lose him forever.”

She sniffed. “What-what’s wrong with Lilith?”

“Silurian got me as well,” the other ginger managed. “She fired two shots, not one.”

“You’re dying too?”

“Time Ladies and Time Lords have a sort of—” Lilith winced when she realized who she was unintentionally paraphrasing. “A sort of trick. We can stop ourselves from dying, but it means we change. New body, new voice, new personality, but same person and same memories.” She yelped and the glow spread up her arms and to her face.

The Doctor took Amy’s hand and pulled her back a bit. “We need to move away or the regeneration backlash will kill us.”

Lilith squeezed her eyes closed against in pain. “It hurts, Dad,” she whimpered.

“It’ll be okay, Lilith. It’ll be over in a moment.”

“It hurts so much.” She flashed back to her first regeneration.

 

> _Get her out of here._
> 
> _Mum, it hurts._
> 
> _I know, love. It’ll stop soon._

 

And her second

 

> _Get back._
> 
> _I’m gonna be right here with you._
> 
> _Thanks, Uncle Jack._

  

The regeneration energy engulfed the rest of Lilith’s body and she felt like she was being torn to pieces, like she was burning from the inside out. And then, it stopped. She pushed herself off the floor onto her hands and knees and panted, trying to catch her breath, letting out a long string of colorful Gallifreyan swears as dark hair fell in her face.

“Good to know your language stays constant throughout regenerations,” the Doctor snorted.

“Shut up, Dad.” Lilith’s new jade green eyes blinked. “What the hell? How am I still American?”

Amy hesitantly stepped forward. “Lilith?”

She nodded. “It’s me, Ames.” She cocked her head to the side and smiled. “Ooh, I like that. _Ames_.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Amy said. “You look completely different.”

“That’s how regeneration works,” Lilith explained. “It completely rewrites your DNA. Same me, new face.” She glanced and the Doctor. “New New Lilith, huh, Dad?”

The Doctor smiled sadly at the memory. “New New Lilith.”

Lilith looked back at Amy. “Doesn’t do much for the short term memory, though. Did you manage to get Rory on board?”

Amy frowned. “Who’s Rory?”

The Doctor and Lilith could only stare at her. Mo and Elliot came down the stairs. “I have seen some things today, but this is beyond mad,” Mo said.

Amy looked at stopwatch. “Doctor! Five seconds till it all goes up!”

The Doctor and Lilith threw themselves at the dematerialization lever and pulled it at the same time. The TARDIS materialized in the graveyard overlooking the drill site. The group exited the ship and watched as the drill exploded.

Elliot looked over at the Doctor and nodded towards Lilith. “Who’s she?”

* * *

Lilith waited by the TARDIS for the Doctor and Amy to head back over.

“You're both very quiet,” the human commented. “Oh! Hey! Look! There I am again! Hello, me!” She waved at her future self, who stood alone in the distance. She frowned.

“You alright?” Lilith asked.

“I thought I saw someone else there for a second. I need a holiday. Didn't we talk about Rio? And you’ve still got to explain this whole ‘regeneration’ thing to me, miss.”

“You go in, I’ll be right behind you. Just got to fix this lock, keeps jamming.” The Doctor unlocked the doors for her.

“You boys and your locksmithery.” Amy poked Lilith’s shoulder. “You coming?”

Lilith gave her a grin. “Be right there, Ames.” Amy shrugged and entered the TARDIS, closing the door behind her. Lilith turned to her father. “Alright, let’s see it. What was that shrapnel?”

The Doctor unwrapped the item he had taken from the crack. It was a piece of wood with words very familiar words painted on it. He held it up to the TARDIS sign. A perfect match. The Doctor and Lilith looked at each other for a moment, worried green eyes meeting even more worried green.

 _Well,_ the newly raven haired Time Lady thought,  _that can’t be good._


	23. Vincent Van Gogh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still cry whenever I watch this episode.

Lilith couldn't help but beam as she watched Amy take in her surroundings. They were at the Musee D’Orsay on the Doctor’s insistence. Amy turned her grin on the Doctor. “Thanks for bringing me.”

“You're welcome,” he said.

She narrowed her eyes. “You're being so nice to me. Why are you two being so nice to me?”

Lilith raised an eyebrow. “We’re always nice to you.”

“Not like this. These places you're taking me: Arcadia, the Trojan Gardens, now this?” Amy poked the Doctor in the chest. “At first I thought you were doing it for Lilith after her regeneration, Doctor, but she’s fine no matter how much you fuss. Now I think it's suspicious.”

“Well, it’s not,” the Doctor defended. “There's nothing to be suspicious about.”

Lilith weaved her arm through Amy’s. “Pay him no mind, Ames. Let’s explore.”

They followed a tour group to a gallery, Lilith suppressing the urge to stop in a bathroom to stare at her reflection again. It had been weeks since the Silurians and she still wasn’t fully used to no longer having her waist length hair getting in the way. That didn’t happen anymore with the short, curly locks she came out of the regeneration with. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her white jeans and sped up so she was at her father’s side.

The tour guide was speaking. “Each of these pictures now is worth tens of millions of pounds. Yet in his lifetime, he was a commercial disaster. Sold only one painting, and that to the sister of a friend. We have here possibly the greatest artist of all time, but when he died, you could sold his entire body of work and got about enough money to buy a sofa and a couple of chairs.” The group laughed. “If you follow me now…” He lead the group to another painting.

Amy grabbed the Doctor by the arm and pulled him towards a painting, _The Church at Auvers._ “Look! There it is, the actual one,” she said, holding up her guidebook.

“Yes. You can almost feel his hand painting it right in front of you. Carving the colours into shapes... Wait a minute.” The Doctor looked closer at the painting.

Lilith made a face. “Oh, here we go. He’s got that look.”

“Of course I’ve got _that look_.” He pointed at the painting. “Just look at that. It’s something very not good indeed.”

Amy frowned. “What thing very not good?”

“Look there, in the window of the church.”

He was right. A dark figure had been painted in one of the church windows. Lilith squinted at the pain. “What is that?”

“Is it a face?” Amy guessed.

“Yes,” the Doctor confirmed, “and not a nice face at all. I know evil when I see it and I see it in that window.” He made his way over to the tour guide, who was still lecturing, and flashed the psychic paper. “Excuse me, if I can just interrupt for one second. Sorry, everyone. Routine inspection, Ministry of Art and... Artiness. So, um…”

“Dr. Black,” the tour guide provided.

“Yes, that's right. Do you know when that picture of the church was painted?”

“Ah, what an interesting question. Most people—”

“I’m going to have to hurry you. When was it?” the Doctor interrupted.

“Exactly?”

“As exactly as you can. Without a long speech, if poss. I'm in a hurry.”

Lilith rolled her eyes.

Dr. Black though for a moment. “Well, in that case, probably somewhere between the 1st and 3rd of June.”

“What year?” the Doctor pressed.

“1890,” the other man responded. “Less than a year before he killed himself.”

The Time Lord nodded. “Thank you, sir. Very helpful indeed. Nice bow tie.” He turned to Amy. “Bow ties are cool.”

“Yours is as well,” Black complimented.

“Oh, thank you. Keep telling them stuff.” The Doctor grabbed Amy and Lilith and pulled them through the exhibit. “We need to go.”

“What about the other pictures?” Amy protested.

“Art can wait. This is life and death.” He shoved them both back into the TARDIS. “We need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh.”

The Doctor set the coordinates and sent the ship on its way. Lilith took her place helping the him at the console, but when the ship materialized and Lilith started towards the door, the Doctor stopped her.

He was frowning worriedly, which only served to tick Lilith off more. “You know you can sit this one out if—”

She pulled herself out of his grip. “Rassilon, Dad, how many times do I have to tell you? I’m _fine_.”

“If you’re sure,” he allowed, doubt evident in his voice. Still, he made no further attempts to stop her and they followed Amy out into the alleyway the TARDIS had landed in. “Right, so here's the plan. We find Vincent and he leads us straight to the church and our nasty friend.”

Amy nodded. “Easy peasy.”

“Considering the circumstances, I doubt it,” Lilith said.

The Doctor hummed in agreement. “I suspect nothing will be easy with Mr. Van Gogh. Now, he'll probably be in the local café. Sort of orangey light, chairs and tables outside.”

Amy pulled out her small guidebook from the museum and opened it to _The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night_. “Like this?”

“That's the one,” he confirmed.

Lilith smirked at her father studying the guidebook so intently when they were only paces away from the café in real life. “Or like that.” she said, pointedly.

The Doctor looked up and grinned. “Yeah, exactly like that.” He approacheed the waitress who was clearing tables and speaking to a man Lilith assumed was the owner of the café. “Good evening. Does the name Vincent Van Gogh ring a bell?”

“Don't mention that man to me,” the owner snapped before walking back inside.

The Doctor, not one to be discouraged, too his question to the waitresses. “Excuse me. Do you know Vincent Van Gogh?”

“Unfortunately,” she huffed.

“Unfortunately?” Amy repeated, confused.

The waitress scoffed. “He's drunk, he's mad and he never pays his bills.”

“Good painter, though, eh?” the Doctor tried.

The waitresses and the patrons all laughed and the Doctor and Amy sat at one of the tables, dejected. Lilith joined them. “Remember what the man at the gallery said? When he was alive, he wasn’t all that popular. His paintings were worth almost nothing.”

The Doctor opened his mouth to respond, but was distracted then hear voices from inside the café. “Come on! Come on! One painting for one drink. That's not a bad deal.”

The owner stormed out of the café, holding a canvas and being followed by another man. It was Vincent Van Gogh. The time travellers exchanged, giddy, excited grins.

“It wouldn't be a bad deal if the painting were any good. I can't hang that up on my walls. It'd scare the customers half to death,” the owner argued, holding up the painting. “It's bad enough having you in here in person, let alone looming over the customer's day and night in a stupid hat. You pay money or you get out.”

Lilith walked over to the two. “I'll pay,” she offered.

Both men started in shock. “What?”

“Well, if you want, I'll pay for the drink,” she repeated. “Or I'll pay for the painting and you can use the money to pay for the drink.”

“You’re not from around here,” Vincent observed. “Exactly who are you?”

“Lilith Smith,” she introduced. “I’m just passing through.”

“Well, in that case, Miss Smith, you don't know three things. One, I pay for my own drinks, thank you.” Everyone in earshot laughed at that. “Two, no one ever buys any of my paintings or they would be laughed out of town, so if you want to stay in town, I suggest you keep your cash to yourself. And three, your friend's cute, but you should keep your nose out of other people's business.” Lilith glanced back at her father and Amy while Vincent turned back to the owner. “Come on, just one more drink. I'll pay tomorrow.”

“No,” was the firm response.

“Or, on the other hand, slightly more compassionately, yes,” he painter tried again.

“Or, on the other hand, to protect my business from madmen, no.”

“Or—”

“Oh, look, just shut up the pair of you!” Amy had decided to get involved. She adressed the owner first. “I would like a bottle of wine, please, which I will then share with whomever,” she shot a look at Vincent, “I choose.”

“That could be good,” he allowed.

The owner nodded. “That's good by me.”

“Good.” Amy headed inside. The followed, but not before shoving the painting back at Vincent. The Doctor joined Lilith in time to make a fanboy noise over that fact that the painting was _Self Portrait with Straw Hat_.

* * *

“That accent of yours,” Vincent said, looking at Amy as the four of them sat around a table. “You from Holland like me?”

Amy and Lilith answered at the same time.

“No.”

“Yes.”

The Doctor tried to kick Amy under the table, but missed and kicked Lilith instead. She glared at him and he winced. “She means yes. So, start again. Hello, I'm the Doctor.”

“I knew it!” Vincent spat.

The Doctor furrowed his brow. “Sorry?”

“My brother's always sending doctors, but you won't be able to help.”

“No, not that kind of doctor.” He chuckled and pointed to a painting at Vincent's side, the unfinished _La Méridienne_. “That's incredible, don't you think, Amy?”

“Absolutely,” Amy agreed. “One of my favourites.”

Lilith was the one to send a foot towards Amy’s shin. She succeeded.

“One of your favourite whats?” Vincent asked. “You've never seen my work before.”

“Ah, yes,” the ginger woman fumbled for a response. “One of my favourite paintings that I've ever seen. Generally.”

“Nice save,” Lilith muttered under her breath.

Vincent deflated. “Then you can't have seen many paintings, then. I know it's terrible. It's the best I could do. Your hair is orange.”

Amy leaned forward. “Yes. So's yours.”

“Yes. It was more orange, but now is, of course, less,” the painter lamented.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “So, Vincent, painted any churches recently? Any churchy plans? Are churches, chapels, religious stuff like that, something you'd like to get into? You know, fairly soon?”

Lilith held back a snicker. ‘ _Do I detect Ginger Jealousy, father dear?_ ’

‘ _The recent regeneration must be messing with your hearing,_ ’ he denied.

“Well, there is one church I'm thinking of painting when the weather is right,” Vincent admitted.

“That is very good news.”

A woman’s screams interrupted whatever was going to be said next. “She's been murdered! Help me!”

Lilith stood. “Murder, on the other hand, is less good.”

The Doctor jumped up as well. “Come on, Lilith, Amy, Vincent!”

Amy, Lilith, and the Doctor headed for the door and Vincent downed the rest of his wine before following. In the alley, the body of a young girl was lying on the stone path. A group of locals had already gathered.

“She's been ripped to shreds!” someone cried.

The Doctor pushed his way to the front of the group. “Please, let me look. I'm a doctor.”

“Who is it?” someone else asked.

“Oh, no, no, no,” the Doctor murmured. He and Vincent knelt beside the body.

“Is she dead?” another person questioned.

A woman shoved her way through. Lilith guessed she was the young girl’s mother. “Away, all of you vultures! This is my daughter. Giselle. What monster could have done this?” She looked up at the Doctor and snarled, “Get away from her!”

Both the Doctor and Vincent both stood and backed away. “Okay, okay,” the former tried to placate the woman.

“Get that madman out of here! You bring this on us. Your madness! You! He's to blame!” the mother threw a stone at them, and the rest of the crows quickly followed in suit, shouting and blaming the painter. The Doctor, Amy, Lilith, and Vincent retreated and ran down the alley, stopping a decent ways away to catch their breath.

“Are you alright?” Lilith asked Vincent.

“Yes,” he sighed. “I'm used to it.”

“I meant physically, but okay. You good, Ames?”

“I’m fine,” Amy assured her.

The Doctor took the lead in the conversation. “Has anything like this murder happened here before?” he asked Vincent.

“Only a week ago,” he responded. “It's a terrible time.”

“As I thought, as I thought. Come on, we'd better get you home.”

“Where are you staying tonight?” Vincent asked.

The Doctor clapped him on the shoulder. “Oh, you're very kind.” He started off down the alley.

Amy and Lilith giggled as they trailed after him. Puzzled, Vincent put his hat on fell into step as well. Vincent lead the trio through a maze of buildings.

“Dark night,” the Doctor commented, “very starry.”

“It's not much. I live on my own. But you should be okay for one night,” Vincent said as they reached his house.

“We're going to stay with him?” Amy whispered to the Doctor.

“Until he paints that church,” the Doctor confirmed.

The Doctor and Lilith strolled right into the house behind Vincent, but Amy had to stop to marvel at the multiple paintings in various stages of completion. “I've come to accept the only person who's going to love my paintings is me,” Vinent lamented.

Amy looked around, wide eyed. “Wow. I mean, really. Wow.”

“Yeah, I know it's a mess. I'll have a proper clear-out. I must, I really must.”

Lilith looked around taking everything in. “Holy hell,” she breathed.

“Coffee, anyone?” Vincent offered.

“Not for me, actually,” the Doctor declined, flinching when their host put the coffee down on _Still Life: Basket with Six Oranges_. “You know, you should be careful with these. They're... precious.” He winced again when Vincent wiped off the coffee ring with his hand.

“Precious to me. Not precious to anyone else.”

“They're precious to me!” Amy protested.

“Well, you're very kind,” Vincent smiled. “And kindness is most welcome.”

The Doctor clapped his hands. “Right, so, this church, then. Near here, is it?”

Vincent frowned at him while getting wood for the fire. “What is it with you and the church?”

“Oh, just casually interested in it, you know.”

“Far from casual. Seems to me you never talk about anything else.” He turned to Lilith. “He's a strange one.”

She snorted. “Tell me about it.”

The Doctor scowled at her. “Okay, so let's talk about you, Vincent. What are you interested in?”

He motioned around the room. “Look around. Art. It seems to me there's so much more to the world than the average eye is allowed to see. I believe, if you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe than you could ever have dreamed of.”

The Doctor glanced at his daughter. “You don't have to tell me.”

* * *

The Doctor was sitting in a chair by the fire as Vincent— after a few too many cups of coffee— explained his views of art. “It's color! Colour that holds the key. I can hear the colours. Listen to them. Every time I step outside, I feel nature is shouting at me. "Come on. Come and get me. Come on. Come on!” He gripped the Doctor's lapels. “Capture my mystery!"

Lilith snickered.

“Maybe you've had enough coffee now,” the Doctor suggested. “How about some nice calming tea? Let's get you a cup of chamomile or something, shall we? Amy? Where's Amy?”

Amy screamed.

Lilith and the Doctor exchanged horrified looks. “No, no. _No_!”

The Doctor sprinted outside, Lilith and Vincent on his heels. They found Amy on her knees in the yard.

“Ames, what happened?” Lilith asked, helping her up.

Amy rubbed the back of her head. “I was having a look at the paintings out here when something hit me from behind.”

“It's okay,” the Doctor assured her. “He's gone now and we're here.”

Vincent looked around and raises his hands in fear. “No!” he cried, backing away.

The Doctor frowned. “Take it easy. Take it easy!”

“What's happening?” Amy asked. “What's he doing?”

Vincent had grabbed a large wooden fork and was holding it in front of him like a weapon.

“I don't know,” the Doctor admitted.

Vincent ran past them, shouting, “Run! Run!”

Lilith cocked her head to the side, watching the painter.

The Doctor was moving slowly. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not a bad idea. Amy, get back. He's having some kind of fit. I'll try to calm him down.”

Lilith pulled Amy towards the doorway, but she was still studying Vincent. “Dad…”

Vincent apparently lashed out at something. The Doctor stepped in front of him. “Easy, Vincent, easy. Look, look. It's me, it's me, it's me.” He held out his hands out in front of him. “It's the Doctor, look. No one else is here. So, Vincent—”

“Look out!”

The Doctor was thrown to the ground. Something roared and shredded one of the paintings. Amy shrieked. “I can't see anything! What is it?”

Whatever it was, Vincent was able see it and was trying to fight it off.

“That is a good question.” The Doctor got to his feet and grabbed a stick. “Let me help you.”

“You can see him, too?” Vincent asked.

The Doctor just started waving the stick around. “Yes. Ish. Well, no. Not really.”

The creature roared and again and the Doctor was tossed back over a table and landed at Vincent's feet. The painted helped him up. “You couldn't see him?”

“No. Oi!” The Doctor went back to waving the stick around with a roar. Lilith watched in half amusement and half horror as Vincent apparently harmed the creature and stopped fighting.

“He's gone.”

“Oh, right. Yes, of course.” The Doctor dropped the stick.

Lilith cleared her throat. “So, we get to deal with the invisible aliens now? Who said the late 1800’s were boring?”


End file.
